Irwansyah survives test in Hong Kong

Irwansyah survives test in Hong Kong

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian men's singles competitor Irwansyah
reached the quarterfinals of the US$30,000 Hong Kong Open
badminton championships after crushing Malaysian Ramesh Nathan
15-7, 15-9.

Irwansyah is scheduled to face Cai Yun of China, who upset top
seeded Rio Suryana, an Indonesian playing for Australia.

Earlier Tuesday, Rio met little resistance from Wai Tsz-kit of
Hong Kong, China, by securing a top 16 berth at 15-5 and 15-2.

Unfortunately, Indonesian Jeffer Rosobin, fifth seeded here,
crashed in the opening round to Hariyanto Agus, another
Indonesian playing for Hong Kong, 10-15, 10-15.

"I am not in top form nowadays, that's why I lost the match,"
Jeffer said, as quoted by Xinhua.

The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) official in
charge of athletes development, Mangombar Ferdinand Siregar, said
the one-star tournament would serve as a final evaluation for
both Irwansyah and Jeffer, who had never showed great performance
during their five-year tenure at the Indonesian Badminton Center.

Women's singles Yuli Marfuah, second seeded here, was
competing against Salakjit Polsana of Thailand in the second
round late on Wednesday. Yuli had an easy win over Ramesh Divya
of India 11-0, 11-3 on Tuesday.

But junior Niniek Masrikah had to bow out to sixth seeded Chan
Mei-mei of Hong Kong 11-8, 6-11, 1-11.

Unseeded Chinese Dong Fang dismissed seventh seed Fatimah
Kumin Lim of Singapore 11-1 and 11-4 in the first round.

Dong's teammate Wei Yan, who entered the top eight in the
five-star China Open a week ago, outclassed eighth seed Ng Ching
of Hong Kong with an identical score to Dong.

Pre-favorite Wang Chen of Hong Kong also was out of the
tournament when the former Chinese Uber Cup finalist in 1996, and
now representing Hong Kong, China, had to withdraw because of
chicken pox.

Men's doubles Endra Mulyajaya and Hadi Saputra had to bow out
to world championships runners up Lee Dong-soo and Yoo Yong-sung
of South Korea, top seeded here, 6-15, 5-15.

Indonesia's new partnership of Sigit Budiarto and Halim
Heryanto faced Chinese juniors Chen Wei and Cai Yun late on
Wednesday.

Sigit and Halim had a walk over win against Germans Michael
Helber and Bjoern Siegemund.

Siregar said Sigit still had a problem adjusting with
competitive situations as he had been banned from tournaments for
one year.

Women's doubles of Vita Marissa and Mona Santoso managed to
reach the quarterfinals to challenge top seeds Chen Lia and Jiang
Xuelian of China.

Vita and Mona had to fight hard to eliminate Machiko Yoneya
and Erni Seki of Japan 15-10, 12-15, 15-13.

In the mixed doubles, Nova Widianto and Upi Chrisnawati failed
to contest third seeds Chan Chong Ming and Joanna Swee Ling Quay
of Malaysia to lose 12-15, 11-15. (yan)