Indonesian shuttlers to meet Japan in world junior c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): Second seed Indonesia will face Japan in the World Junior Badminton Championships for the Bimantara Cup in Guangzhou, China, on Saturday.

Other quarterfinals matches will feature fourth seed Germany against Chinese Taipei, third seed South Korea against underdog Thailand and top seed China against England.

Indonesia defeated the Netherlands 5-0 and New Zealand 5-0 on Friday while Japan easily beat Canada 5-0 but had to work hard to eliminate Singapore 3-2 also on Friday.

Indonesia team manager Yacob Rusdianto said in a telephone interview on Saturday that he expected his players to perform well.

"We aim to reach the top four spots, therefore we must be able to beat Japan tomorrow."

Host China, the title favorite for the inaugural team event of the championships, was too strong for Macau as it crushed its opponent with straight set wins, as they had on Friday night over Italy in its other Group match.

"Group matches are quite easy because the opponents are not on the same level as us," said Chinese coach Chen Xingdong, as quoted by www.sportasia.com.

"The real campaign has yet to start."

Thailand unexpectedly upset badminton powerhouse Denmark 4-1 on Friday. It continued its path to the quarters by whitewashing the Czech Republic 5-0 on Saturday.

South Korea also had convincing victories on Friday by eliminating Sweden 5-0 and crushing France 5-0.

Third seed Germany also had a smooth way to the quarters by overwhelming Russia 5-0 and Hong Kong 5-0. Its next opponent, Taipei, had to lose a match to India before winning 4-1 but easily defeated South Africa 5-0.

The fourth edition of the biennial championships, which features an experimental five-set, first-to-seven-points scoring system, runs through Nov. 12 with five individual events starting on Tuesday. (yan)