Indonesia shocks Denmark to face Korea in semis

Indonesia shocks Denmark to face Korea in semis

JAKARTA (JP): Third ranked Indonesia shocked the 1999 runner-
up Denmark 3-2 in the Sudirman Cup mixed-team championship round-
robin match in Seville, Spain on Wednesday.

Indonesia, which now tops Group B, will face dark horse South
Korea in Friday's semifinals while Denmark will challenge
defending champion China, which is aiming to bring home the
trophy for the fourth time. Mighty China whitewashed Korea 5-0.

Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur opened Indonesia's victory
by defeating the world number one pairing of Michael Sogaard and
Rikke Olsen 15-11, 15-7.

World number 15 Hendrawan had to struggle to eliminate world
number eight Anders Boesen, who was replacing world number two
Peter Gade Christensen, 9-15, 15-2, 15-13.

Danish world number 16 Mette Sorensen, a substitute for world
number one Camilla Martin, was much too powerful for Yuli
Marfuah, ranked 49th, to narrow the gap 2-1 by winning 9-11, 13-
10, 11-6.

The new partnership of Sigit Budiarto and Flandy Limpele in
the men's doubles ensured Indonesia's victory after giving their
all to crush the world number one pairing of Jens Eriksen and
Jesper Larsen 10-15, 15-8, 15-3.

In the indecisive women's doubles, Denmark was still trailing
3-2 after Ann-Lou Jorgensen and Mette Schjoldager easily beat
Indarti Issoliana and Deyana Lomban 15-3, 15-6.

Indonesian head coach Christian Hadinata told The Jakarta Post
on the sidelines of a training session in Seville on Thursday
that he was also surprised by the victory. However, he underlined
the poor form of Deyana and Indarti.

"Our women's doubles have yet to recover from their fatigue
after playing in a tough match against England on Tuesday. We are
having a break today and I'll listen to the coach's analysis
before deciding the line-up for Friday's semifinals.

"I'm quite satisfied with the men's doubles as it's their
first performance. Sigit and Flandy seemed unable to cope with
the pressure in the first game but they managed to deal with it
and won.

"As for Hendrawan, he showed great form facing Boesen, who is
much younger and faster. His experience really helped him.

Christian rejected the possibility that Denmark intentionally
lost to Indonesia.

"I don't think they wanted to lose to our team. I am sure that
Denmark wanted to top the group standings to avoid meeting China
in the semifinals.

"The key to our success is our mixed doubles. Bambang and
Minarti followed coach Richard Mainaky's instruction to hem
Sogaard and Olsen in. I saw that Olsen was quite down in the
dumps during the match yesterday.

In Group A, China crushed Korea 5-0. Chinese mixed duo Liu
Yong and Gao Ling sweated it out to overpower Kim Dong-moon and
Ra Kyung-min of Korea 8-15, 17-14, 15-4. Women's singles Zhou Mi
overcame Jun Jae-youn 11-5, 13-10 while men's singles Chen Hong
outclassed Shon Seung-mo 15-8, 15-6.

Men's doubles Zhang Jun and Zhang Wei beat Ha Tae-kwon and Yoo
Yong-sung 15-5, 15-13 while women's doubles Huang Nanyan and Yang
Wei eliminated Lee Kyung-won and Ra Kyung-min 11-15, 15-10, 15-8.

Tight-lipped

Christian remained tight-lipped on the Indonesian team line-up
against Korea for Friday's semis.

"We'll submit the line-up today at 6.00 p.m. local time (11.00
p.m. Jakarta time) as we're set to play tomorrow's first semis at
12.00 p.m. local time.

"But I'm quite sure that Korea will field the same team
because they don't have so many players.

Meanwhile, Chinese head coach Li Yongbo could not hide his
disappointment with the semifinal match.

"We'd prefer to meet Indonesia rather than Denmark, who we
think are stronger than Indonesia. We only enjoy the upper hand
over the Danes in the women's doubles. As for the other four
events, both sides have equal chances," Li was quoted as saying
by Xinhua.

"But we are confident of winning a final berth. Our goal is to
win the championship so we don't care who we come up against. We
must defeat every opponent on our way to the championship."

On the contrary, Denmark head coach Kenneth Larsen said that
he had arranged to meet China in the semifinals.

"If we wanted, we could have defeated Indonesia in the round-
robin. But we didn't do that because we prefer to see China in
the semifinals," Larsen was quoted as saying by Antara. (yan)