Indonesia's badminton doubles reach Olympics quarters
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)