Indonesia shuttlers on track for individual events

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Busan, South Korea

Putting Wednesday's disheartening loss to host South Korea in the men's team final aside, Indonesian shuttlers managed to cruise to the second round in badminton individual events on Thursday.

Men's singles shuttler Hendrawan did not find any difficulties in a rout of India's Gupta Abhinn Shyam 15-5, 15-5 although his rank is lower than the Indian.

Hendrawan is currently ranked number 105 while the Indian is 89th in the world. Hendrawan will next meet Ronald Susilo of Singapore who had a bye on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Taufik Hidayat also had a bye and will have his first match on Friday against Japan's Keita Masuda who defeated Chen Feng of Chinese Taipei 15-12, 15-12.

Indonesian mixed doubles pairs also cruised to the next round.

Tri Kusheryanto and Emma Ermawati moved to the quarterfinals after defeating the Japanese pair of Tadashi Otsuka and Shizuka Yamamoto 2-1.

The Indonesians won the first game 11-5, but lost 9-11 in the second game. Tri and Emma had an easy 11-0 win to take the match in the third game.

Seeded third in the tournament, Tri and Emma will next challenge the Chinese pair of Chen Qiqiu and Zhang Jiwei who had an easy 11-5, 11-2 victory over Malaysia's Chang Kim Wai and Wong Pei Tty.

Another Indonesian duo, second seeded Nova Widhianto and Vita Marissa also had an easy 11-5, 11-5 win over Yau Tse Yuk and Louisa Koon Wai Chee of Hong Kong.

Nova and Vita are set to face Chinese Zhang Jun and Gao Ling who routed O Man Tong and Long Ying of Macau.

Indonesia's men's doubles pair of Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto will start their campaign on Friday against Fujimoto and Sasahi Sho of Japan.

Halim Haryanto and Tri Kusheryanto are set to face Malaysian pair of Choong Tan Fook and Chang Kim Wai.

Indonesia does not have participants in the women's singles or doubles events.

Indonesian badminton manager team Christian Hadinata expected the Badminton Association of Indonesian to file an official complaint with the Asian Badminton Confederation (ABC) and the International Badminton Federation (IBF) over the irregularities during the men's team final when South Korean linesmen blatantly gave their shuttlers favorable calls.

"There is the international relations division in PBSI who should follow up on the incident," said Christian.

Christian said that all the Indonesian shuttlers had regained their composure after the shock of Wednesday's irregularities and were ready to play.

"There is no need to walk out if the referees make a clear decision," he said.

Separately in the Geumjeong Tennis Stadium in the Geumjeong Sports Park, Indonesian number one seeds Angelique Widjaja and Wynne Adiati Prakusya secured their semifinals berths after defeating Sun Tian-tian and Li Ting of China in the women's doubles event.

They had to fight hard to win the first set 7-5 but had an easier 6-2 score in the second set of their quarterfinals match.

The Indonesians will meet the Japanese pair of Saori Obata and Akiko Morigami in a semifinal showdown.

The Japanese defeated Janet Lee and Chiang Chia Jung of Chinese Taipei with a dominating shutout victory 6-0, 6-0.

In the other semifinals, another Japanese pair of Yuka Yoshida and Miho Saeki will face host Kim Mi-ok and Choi Young-ja.