Indonesia to meet Denmark in semis
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Guangzhou, China
With its top badminton players benched, Indonesia still crushed newcomer Germany 5-0 at the men's team Thomas Cup Group B qualifying round at Tianhe Sports Center on Tuesday.
The victory means that Indonesia tops Group B and will meet Denmark in Friday's semifinals. The other semifinals will be between hosts China and Malaysia.
Indonesia left out Marlev Mainaky, Taufik Hidayat and Tri Kusheryanto and opted for second-stringers Budi Santoso and Rony Agustinus in the singles matches and fifth doubles shuttler Bambang Suprianto in the doubles.
Hendrawan, who played in the first singles tie, lost the first game before coming back against Bjorn Joppien to take the lead for Indonesia with a 5-7, 7-5, 7-1, 7-5 win.
Joppien swiftly took the first game before Hendrawan improved his play in the second. Hendrawan also took a commanding lead at the third with excellent drives which saw him turn into a more offensive shuttler than he used to be.
Hendrawan made it 7-5 in the fourth, taking revenge for his loss to Joppien at last year's Indonesian Open during their first-round encounter.
In the second match, first doubles Halim Haryanto and Sigit Budiarto beat Ingo Kindervater and Bjorn Siegemund to increase the lead to 2-0 by winning 8-6, 7-4, 7-3.
The Indonesian pair swiftly took a 5-1 lead only to let the Germans collect their points, but the former immediately closed it out with a 8-6 win in the first game.
Halim and Sigit still struggled to find their best play in the second game before winning it 7-4. They had an easier time in the third, winning it 7-3.
Sigit usually pairs with Candra Wijaya while Halim with Tri Kusheryanto. This time, Candra was paired with Bambang to form the second doubles.
Second singles Budi had quite a tough time against Jens Roch in the third match.
Budi had to work hard before winning the first game 7-5. Budi, a 2002 All England finalist, then proved his higher quality by taking the second 7-0 only to lose the third 5-7 although had taken an early 4-0 lead against the left-handed Roch.
Budi ensured Indonesia's victory by winning the fourth game 7- 5.
At the fourth match, second doubles Candra and Bambang defeated Jochen Cassel and Joachim Tesche 3-0.
In the fifth match, Rony completed Indonesia's clean sweep by defeating Carl Hueckstaedt, 7-4, 7-1, 7-3.
"I was a little bit shaky in the first game as this is my first ever Thomas appearance. I am still willing to contribute a victory although we had secured the semifinals berth," he told reporters after his match.
"I have never met a German before but Hueckstaedt has excellent accuracy."
In another Group B match, Malaysia crushed Thailand 5-0 to set a semifinals match against host China on Thursday. China defeated South Korea 4-1 in Group A.
Meanwhile, Denmark outclassed Sweden 5-0.