Indonesian men's doubles reach 3rd round at World Championships

By Primastuti Handayani

COPENHAGEN (JP): Indonesia's men's doubles pairings of Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan and Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky reached the third round of the World Championships at Brondby Hall here on Thursday.

But a former Indonesian player, Ardy Bernardus Wiranata, who is a head coach at the United States badminton center, stole the show on Wednesday evening when he upset China's Dong Jiong, the 15th seed, 5-15, 15-11, 15-14 in a thrilling 61-minute match.

Ardy, who is playing for the U.S., will now meet former teammate Hendrawan, who had to work hard to overcome qualifier Tam Kai Chuen of Chinese Taipei 13-15, 15-8, 15-14.

Hendrawan said when he last met Tam at the Asian Games in 1998, the match had been a lot easier.

In another gripping match on Thursday morning, the old hands of Sweden's Par-Gunnar Jonsson and Peter Axelsson beat the Chinese pairing of Yu Yang and Yang Ming 16-17, 17-16, 15-12 in 90 minutes.

Axelsson and Jonsson now face the third-seeded Indonesian pairing of Candra and Tony, who eased past the Danish duo of Thomas Stavngaard and Lars Paaske 15-5, 15-8.

"Candra and Tony have better technical skills. If Peter and Par-Gunnar can get more than 10 points in each game, that would be good for them," said Atiek Djauhari, who coached Candra and former partner Sigit Budiarto to victory in the championships two years ago.

In the women's doubles, Indonesia's pairing of Cynthia Tuwankotta and Etty Tantri had to work hard to overcome Kinga Rudolf and Kamila Augustyn of Poland 15-4, 12-15, 15-5.

"They are still lacking self-confidence. Their opponents were below their technical level but they made so many unforced errors. But we cannot blame them for losing the second game because they were distracted by wind inside the hall," said deputy team manager Christian Hadinata, who is also Indonesia's head coach.

"I don't understand how they played so badly. If they had been up against players of their own level, they would have lost," Christian added.

Both Cynthia and Etty blamed their shaky form on the wind, which they said had disrupted their rhythm.

The pair will now meet the top seeds Huang Nanyan and Yang Wei, who defeated Japan's Hiromi Yamada and Naomi Murakami 15-9, 15-4 in the third round on Thursday evening.

Indonesia's Indarti Issoliana and Carmelita also reached the third round on Thursday after beating Woon Sze Mei and Ang Li Peng of Malaysia 15-5, 15-11.

Sole hope

Unfortunately, mixed doubles fourth seeds Tri Kusherjanto and Minarti Timur of Indonesia tumbled to defeat against the new partnership of Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager of Denmark 12- 15, 7-15.

The country's sole remaining hope in the mixed doubles is the pairing of Bambang Suprianto and Zelin Resiana, who won over Chris Bruil and Erica van den Heuvel of the Netherlands 15-6, 15- 12. The duo now face All England champions Simon Archer and Joanne Goode in the quarterfinals.

Veterans Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky easily defeated Quinten Van Dalm and Dennis Lens of the Netherlands 15-7, 15-4. They will now meet Victo Wibowo and Lee Wei-Jen of Chinese Taipei in the quarterfinals.

Second seeds Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian defeated Ian Sydie and Brent Olynyk of Canada 15-9, 15-3. Flandy and Didi, Eng Hian's nickname, will now face Cheng Rui and Wang Wei of China.

Elsewhere, home favorite Peter Gade Christensen defeated his idol Hariyanto Arbi 15-6, 15-3, while in the women's singles, South Korea's Lee Kyung-won upset the sixth-seeded Zhou Mi of China 9-11, 11-8, 12-10. Also in the women's singles, Asian Games gold medalist Kanako Yonekura of Japan, seeded 16th, made an early exit, losing 6-11, 4-11 to the little-known Ella Karachkova of Russia.

Selected results (x-denotes seeding)

Thursday's match:

Men's doubles: 2-Flandy Limpele/Eng Hian (Ina) bt Ian Sydie/Brent Olynyk (Can) 15-9, 15-3; 3-Candra Wijaya/Tony Gunawan (Ina) bt Thomas Stavngaard/Lars Paaske (Den) 15-5, 15-8; 4-Ricky Subagja/Rexy Mainaky (Ina) bt Quinten Van Dalm/Dennis Lens (Ned) 15-7, 15-4; 5-Michael Sogaard/Jim Laugesen (Den) bt Michal Logosz/Robert Mateusiak (Pol) 15-3, 15-5; Pramote Teerawiwatana/Tesa Panvisvas (Tha) bt 7-Chew Choon Eng/Lee Wan Wah (Mal) 9-15, 15-9, 15-9; 10-Lee Dong-soo/Yoo Yong-sung (Kor) bt Chris Hunt/Julian Robertson (Gbr) 15-12, 15-11

Wednesday's match:

Men's singles: 1-Peter Gade Christensen (Den) bt Hariyanto Arbi (Ina) 15-6, 15-3; 3-Budi Santoso (Ina) bt Chen Hong (Chn) 15-8, 9-15, 15-4; Ardy Wiranata (USA) bt 15-Dong Jiong (Chn) 5-15, 15-11, 15-14; 8-Hendrawan (Ina) bt Tam Kai Chuen (Tpe) 13-15, 15-8, 15-14; 14-Rashid Sidek (Mal) bt Jim Andersen (Nor) 15-6, 15-5; 4-Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen (Den) bt Peter Knowles (Gbr) 15-8, 15-8; 7-Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen (Den) bt Dicky Palyama (Ned) 15-12, 15-9; 10-Taufik Hidayat (Ina) bt Bertrand Gallet (Fra) 15-10, 15-5; 2-Sun Jun (Chn) bt Rasmus Wengberg (Swe) 15-8, 15-3

Women's singles: 4-Dai Yun (Chn) bt Wai Chee Koom (Hkg) 4-11, 11-5, 11-3; 11-Lidya Djaelawidjaja (Ina) bt Santi Wibowo (Swi) 11-5, 11-5; Lee Kyung-won (Kor) bt 6-Zhou Mi (Chn) 9-11, 11-8, 12-10; 5-Zhang Ning (Chn) bt Marina Andrievskaya (Swe) 11-4, 11-2; 15-Kim Ji-hyun (Kor) bt Katja Michalowsky (Ger) 11-5, 11-2; 3-Camilla Martin (Den) bt Vlada Tcherniavskaya (Blr) 11-0, 11-0; 10-Cindana Hartono (Ina) bt Judith Meulendijks (Ned) 7-11, 11-3, 11-6