Indonesia's badminton doubles reach Olympics quarters

JAKARTA (JP): Top seeds Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan led the three Indonesian men's doubles pairs to the quarterfinals of the Olympic badminton event in Sydney on Sunday.

World number one pair Candra and Tony made short work of Danish challengers Jim Laugesen and Michael Sogaard with an effortless 15-9, 15-7 win.

"I was very relaxed in the match but it was just the first round. I have to concentrate more in tomorrow morning's match," Candra told The Jakarta Post by telephone.

The Indonesian pair, who got a bye in the first round, will face Simon Archer and Nathan Robertson of England, who beat Michal Logosz and Robert Mateusiak of Poland 15-1, 15-10.

"We beat Simon and Nathan in our previous three encounters but the last time we met we had to play rubber sets," said Candra, who celebrated his 25th birthday Saturday. "We have to be very careful tomorrow."

Third seeds Eng Hian and Flandy Limpele had to work hard before crushing the veteran partnership of Peter Axelsson and Par-Gunnar Jonsson of Sweden 15-12, 15-11.

The Indonesians will meet Malaysians Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah, who were taken to the limit before defeating Tesana Panvisavas and Pramote Teerawiwatana of Thailand 11-15, 17-15, 15-9.

"We have never lost to the Malaysians in our three meetings. Hopefully we will maintain the record tomorrow," Eng Hian told the Post.

Unlike their younger teammates, defending champions and sixth seeds Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky labored to overcome Martin Lundgaard Hansen and Lars Paaske of Denmark 15-9, 13-15, 15-7.

Rexy said he had yet to recover after the tiring opening ceremony, in which he carried the Indonesian flag. But he refused to use it as an excuse.

AFP reported the pair squandered a 10-2 lead in the second set. However, the long-time partners maintained that the closeness of their first match in Sydney would benefit them in the later rounds.

Their next opponents will be the world champions Ha Tae-kwon and Kim Dong-moon, who defeated Malaysia's Olympic silver medalists Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock 15-5, 15-3.

Indonesian mixed doubles top seeds Tri Kusharjanto and Minarti Timur survived their first test against Ha Tae-kwon and Chung Jae-hee of South Korea, winning 15-13, 15-11.

They will next meet Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager of Denmark, who eliminated Michael Keck and Nicol Pitro of Germany 15-7, 15-6.

Sixth seeds Bambang Suprianto and Zelin Resiana overcame Chen Qiqiu and Chen Lin of China 15-10, 15-3. Bambang and Zelin will challenge fourth seeds Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark, who beat Mike Beres and Kara Solmundson of Canada 15-8, 15-2.

The biggest upset so far was third seeds Liu Yong and Ge Fei losing to unseeded Chris Bruil and Erica van den Heuvel of the Netherlands 17-15, 15-7.

Unseeded Lidya Djaelawidjaja cruised to the third round after enjoying a comfortable win over Sandra Dimbour of France 11-1, 11-6.

But Lidya will face a tough challenge from top seed Gong Zhichao of China in the third round on Monday. The All England winner Gong easily beat Ling Wanting of Hong Kong 11-4, 11-3.

Ellen Angelinawaty had to bow out to world champion and second seed Camilla Martin of Denmark 11-6, 11-2. (yan)