Indonesia's singles players have mixed fortunes at worlds
Indonesia's singles players have mixed fortunes at worlds
Agencies, Anaheim, California
Indonesia's Taufik Hidayat struggled to advance to the
quarterfinals of the World Badminton Championships in Anaheim,
California, on Thursday, while Sony Dwi Kuncoro was stopped by
Peter Gade.
Olympic champion Taufik was made to battle before eventually
ousting Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana 15-9, 15-17, 15-10 in the
men's singles, according to Reuters.
Sony lost to Danish number one Gade, the third seed in the
men's singles, 15-11, 15-10. However, all four of Indonesia's
doubles pairs advanced to the next stage.
In the men's doubles, second seeds Candra Wijaya and Sigit
Budiarto defeated Mohammad Fairuzizuan Tazari and Lin Woon Fui of
Malaysia 15-7, 15-10.
Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto defeated the Malaysian pair
of Tan Bin Shen and Ong Soon Hock 15-9, 10-15, 15-5, while 10th
seeds Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian upset sixth seeds Mathias Boe
and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark 15-12, 15-7
Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir, the only Indonesian pair in
the mixed doubles, kept their hopes alive with a 15-12, 15-12 win
over Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark.
In the men's singles, world number one Lin Dan of China used a
selective net attack and a barrage of smashes to overpower Shoji
Sato, AFP reported.
The 21-year-old Lin needed one hour, three minutes to defeat
Sato and set up a quarterfinal clash with South Korea's Lee Hyun
Ii.
"I want to be the champion," Lin said. "I am confident I can
do it."
Lin said he started to feel some of the pressure of being the
top seed in the second game, but battled through and figured out
a way to beat Japan's Sato.
"The match was harder than I expected," Lin said. "There is a
lot of pressure on me because everyone expects me to be the
champion."
In one stellar stretch at the end of the first game, Lin
registered four consecutive points to go up one game to zero.
He stumbled in the second game, losing 15-9, before regrouping
to easily win the third 15-5.
"I couldn't control the shuttle in the second game because of
the wind. I couldn't play the way I wanted to," Lin said.
Sato was able to dictate the pace in the second game but
couldn't sustain it over a full match.
"His shuttle moves so fast and his foot speed is amazing,"
Sato said of Lin. "He hits his smash so hard and keeps you
guessing all the time. He sees the game very well."
Lin moves on to battle 13th seeded Lee, who upset number eight
Mohammad Hafiz Hashim of Malaysia 15-11, 15-5.
Second seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark overpowered England's
last surviving men's hope Aamir Ghaffer 15-2, 15-4.
Other top men's seed to advance to the quarterfinals were
fourth seed Bao Chunlai of China, Malaysian number five Lee Chong
Wei and China's number seven Chen Hong, who beat ninth seed Ng
Wei of Hong Kong 15-7, 14-17, 15-3.
Both top women's seeds from China survived third-round scares
before rallying to beat their opponents.
Reigning Olympic and world champion Zhang Ning advanced to the
quarterfinals by defeating 18-year-old Yip Pui-yin of Hong Kong
4-11, 11-3, 11-4.
Zhang's biggest rival is Lin's girlfriend and second seed Xie
Xingfang, who had to outlast Indonesian-born Dutch Mia Audina
Tjiptawan. Xie, 24, beat the Olympic silver medalist 11-4, 11-13,
11-8 to reach the quarterfinals.
Fifth-seeded Yao Jie of China became the second top women's
singles player to be upset when she lost 11-3, 11-13, 11-6 to
Japan's Mori.