Hari, Joko may reach Sanyo semis: Coach

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's Hariyanto Arbi and Joko Suprianto have a good chance of reaching the semifinals of the 1997 Sanyo World Cup Badminton Championship in Yogyakarta this week.

Coach Indra Gunawan told The Jakarta Post yesterday that Hariyanto, nicknamed Hari, will be able to overcome Ong Ewe Hock of Malaysia, Darren Hall of England and Hwang Sun-ho of South Korea in group D.

"Hari has beaten Hall and Ong before. But he has to be careful with Hwang. If Hari performs like he did in the Singapore Open, I believe he can win the group D ties. I hope he won't face nontechnical problems during the championship," Gunawan said.

Hari won the Singapore Open last month by beating junior Indra Wijaya in the finals.

Gunawan said: "I haven't given him a target to win. The most important thing to Hari is he can find his confidence through matches."

The championship, which will allow players to take a 90-second break in point 8 for men's singles and doubles and in point 6 for women's singles, will take place at the Among Rogo sports hall from Aug. 20 to Aug. 24.

Gunawan said Joko has to fight hard to beat Chinese Lou Yigang, Thomas Johanson of Sweden and unseeded Gopi Chand of India in group B.

"Joko has to be very careful because he could only win in rubber sets against Johanson in the World Cup in Glasgow in May and Lou in Malaysia last month.

"Joko's physical condition is good now but he's still haunted by injury to his right thigh," he said.

Joko injured his thigh at the Grand Prix Finals in Denpasar, Bali, last year.

Veteran Ardy Wiranata, the 1997 Indonesia Open winner, will meet Sun Jun of China, Tam Kai Chuen of Hong Kong and Soren B. Nielsen of Denmark in group C.

"From the three rivals, only Sun is the toughest. But so far, Ardy has always won against him. However, the situation is very different now. Sun is improving while Ardy is aging. They will have to work hard to beat each other with the same type of playing," Gunawan said.

Young hopeful Indra Wijaya will challenge Jeroen van Dijk of the Netherlands, Martin Lundgaard Hansen of Denmark and defending champion Dong Jiong of China in group A.

Indra lost to Dong in the 1996 Chinese Open but took revenge in the Grand Prix Finals in Bali in the same year.

"Lucky the championship uses the round-robin system. Indra is in a very good condition while Dong has been unbeatable. I just want to see how they meet.

"I don't expect Indra to become a winner. I want him to play against different types of players," Gunawan said.

Gunawan expressed disappointment with the absence of Denmark's top players at the championship.

Denmark sent only second string shuttlers Nielsen and Hansen. The country's top shuttlers including Peter Rasmussen, Peter Gade Christensen and Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen had said they would be absent in the last championship.

Gunawan said yesterday that Indonesia's women's doubles of Indarti Isolina and Deyana Lomban could not perform at the championship due to Deyana being injured.

"Deyana's left ankle was injured and we'll ask the IBF (International Badminton Federation) to replace her with Finarsih," he said. (yan)