Indonesian shuttlers advance to the Uber Cup semifinals

JAKARTA (JP): Top seed Indonesia advanced to the semifinals by defeating third seed Chinese Taipei 4-1 in third-day action at the Thomas and Uber Cup qualifying round in New Delhi on Friday.

First singles Lidya Djaelawidjaja, who lost her previous two matches, exploited her technical skills to top Huang Chia-Chi 11- 5, 11-7.

The doubles pairing of Elysa Nathanael and Deyana Lomban shook off earlier poor performances to give Indonesia a 2-0 lead with a 15-5, 15-8 defeat of Tsai Hui-Min and Chen Li-Chin.

Chinese Taipei earned one point when Chan Ya-Lin upset Indonesian second singles Ellen Angelina, who had not lost a point in her previous two matches. Ellen put up a good fight, but bowed out 11-4, 8-11, 4-11 after a grueling 45 minutes.

The second doubles team of Etty Tantri and Cynthia Tuwankotta -- who fell in Thursday's deciding match against Hong Kong -- secured Indonesia's semifinal berth with a 15-8, 17-14 victory over Chien Hsui-Lin and Chen Wen-Hsing.

Third singles Yuli Marfuah rounded out Indonesia's triumph by defeating Chien Yu-Chin 11-6, 11-8.

Indonesia was the Group X runner-up after Hong Kong, which won the group despite being upset by India 1-4. Indonesia will face the winner of South Korea and Japan in Saturday's semifinals.

Team manager Christian Hadinata said in a telephone interview that he was relieved by the result.

"I can finally breath again. Today was our last chance to reach the semifinals. Some players improved, but some didn't," he said.

"Ellen, who usually performs good, lost her touch on critical points and made many unforced errors."

Christian said an evaluation of the round-robin matches showed Indonesian shuttlers got off to good starts, but then faded.

"Most of the time, they win the first game but they are inconsistent and allow their opponents to find their form. When our players are leading they cannot maintain it if their opponents start to make a comeback."

Christian said he would likely keep the same lineup for Saturday's semifinals.

"This is the best team we have. We want to play our best in the semifinals to secure a ticket to the Uber Cup finals in Kuala Lumpur in May."

Three teams from both the Asia and Europe zones will compete in the finals along with host Malaysia and defending champion China.

Christian said he had no preference in facing either South Korea or Japan in the semifinals.

"Korea has a very strong doubles team in Ra Kyung-min and Chung Jae-hee and an energetic singles player in Kim Ji-hyun. Japan has two good singles players in Yazuko Mizui and Kanako Yonekura. We still have a good chance to defeat either of them," he said. (yan)