Indonesia Open highlights problems of local women shuttlers

Indonesia Open highlights problems of local women shuttlers

Musthofid and Moch N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

While Indonesia's men's players salvaged some pride for the
hosts, taking two titles at the recently-concluded Indonesia Open
badminton championship, it has left the country's badminton
governing body, PBSI, with the persistent problem of the
lackluster women's field.

Taufik Hidayat, who earned Indonesia's only gold medal at the
Olympics in August, continued his winning run with his third
title in a row in the men's singles, while Luluk Hadiyanto and
Alven Yulianto took honors in the men's doubles.

Taufik's triumph at home was proven with his domination of
Chinese Chen Hong, who has now been beaten in all six meetings to
date between them.

The last three wins for Taufik came in the finals of the
Indonesia Open following their previous match-up in Surabaya in
2002 and in Batam in 2003.

The home victory in the men's doubles was a different matter,
with Luluk and Alven having to battle the odds to eventually
emerge winners over Chinese Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun. Before the
Indonesia Open final, the Indonesians had lost four times to the
Chinese pair in their last five meetings.

Taufik's expected win over Chen Hong aside, the home fans were
more concerned about Lin Dan, the world's number one and the
tournament's top seed, who Taufik had to tackle in the
semifinals.

Against Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun, the prospects for the men's
doubles was not encouraging given Luluk and Alven's poor record
against the Chinese.

Taufik too appeared cautious in his match against left-hander
Lin Dan, as he admitted later. "If I could choose my opponents, I
would not choose to face Lin Dan," he said.

It was only because the Indonesian believed in the virtue of
his sport that he tried to nurture some confidence about the
match.

"In the end, it is play on the court that counts. Lin Dan
might have been favored to win, but in fact it was me who won,"
he said.

Luluk and Alven's doubles victory for Indonesia prevented
China from making a clean sweep of the medals, thanks to their
might in the women's division.

Xie Xingfang won her second women's singles title of the
tournament. The women's doubles honor was already in safe Chinese
hands even before the finals were wrapped up, with Yang Wei/Zhang
Jiewen and Zhang Dan/Zhang Yawen in the fight for the top prize.

Zhang Jun/Gao Ling secured their third title with a win in the
mixed doubles.

With China appearing invincible, Indonesia has been desperate
to find a formula for developing strong women's contenders.

After the retirement of Susi Susanti -- who capped herself
with six Indonesia Open trophies -- Indonesia has lost virtually
all its ground in the women's division.

Ellen Angelina was the last Indonesian woman to bask in
Indonesia Open glory when she won the women's singles in 2001.
Indonesia made a clean sweep of the five titles on offer in that
year, in the absence of China, which opted out citing security
fears.

In the 2004 tournament, Indonesia had the bulk of the women's
players. However, all of them exited early, leaving only
Fransisca Ratnasari Haris as the lone contender in the
quarterfinals, where she was stopped by Salakjit Ponsana.

The only credit for Fransisca was that she chalked up a big
scalp by stunning top seed Pi Hongyan en route to the
quarterfinals.

In the women's doubles, Indonesia had 15 pairs in the main
round only to see Nathalia Poluakan and Rini Mundiastuti through
before they crashed out in the third round by eventual winners
Zhang Dan and Zhang Yawei of China.

Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir and Anggun Nugroho/Teti Yunita
fell short of reaching the semifinals.

The failure of Nova and Lilyana was very disappointing as the
pair had been one of Indonesia's best prospects, with their
success in the Japan Open.

Indonesia's women's poor performance showed that they have a
long way to go for them to get back into contention at the
international level.

Hendrawan, a silver medalist in 2000 and now in charge of the
national women's team, was well aware of the problem when he
warned against exaggerating Fransisca's upset win over Pi
Hongyan.

"Fransisca's win over Pi Hongyan was just the beginning of a
long journey for our women players to try to re-enter the world
ranks."