Men's doubles team expected to do well: PBSI

By Primastuti Handayani

DENPASAR (JP): Indonesia's new partnerships in the men's doubles are expected to create surprises in the US$150,000 Sanyo Indonesia Open, which will start here on Wednesday. The new pairs of Flandy Limpele and Wahyu Agung and another pair of Antonius and Halim Heryanto have a good chance to reach the quarterfinals.

The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) national training director, Christian Hadinata, said on Monday that Flandy and Agung would only be seriously challenged by the Danish duo of Michael Sogaard and Jim Laugesen if they both reached the quarterfinals.

Antonius and Halim will most likely meet Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen of Denmark also in the quarterfinals.

"Both sudden doubles have a great chance to create surprises. We can see from Agung's performance in the men's doubles during the 20th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Brunei Darussalam early this month that he plays better in the men's doubles than in his speciality of mixed doubles. I hope he can maintain his performance in the men's doubles as he did in the Games," Christian said.

"We also hope the situation will not be too different for Antonius and Halim. Antonius and his usual partner Denny Kantono lost to Eriksen and Larsen. We want to see if he can manage to overcome the Danish pair with a younger partner."

Halim used to partner with Tony Gunawan before the latter was switched to pair with Candra Wijaya. Candra himself used to partner with Sigit Budiarto, who is banned from competition until Nov. 15 due to consuming anabolic steroid nandrolone.

Christian said top seeded Candra and Tony must be aware of Thai pair Pramote Teerawiwatana and Tesana Pansisavas, SEA Games gold medalists, if they meet in the quarterfinals.

Indonesian old hands Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky, a 1996 Olympics gold medalists, will most likely face Swedish number one pair Peter Axelsson and Par-Gunnar Jonsson in the quarterfinals.

"So far, Ricky and Rexy have never lost to the Swedes. I hope they can maintain the tradition. But I'm a bit worried as I see they lack motivation compared to the Swedish pair."

"I notice the Swedish pair are still highly motivated during their sparring training at the Indonesian Badminton Center in Cipayung, East Jakarta," he said.

In the men's singles, Christian saw two players -- Ronny Agustinus and Marlev Mainaky -- as the dark horses in the tournament.

"They both are potentially a threat to their opponents, especially the European players. Ronny and Marlev are very good both in offense and defense. They also have good posture. But they need to improve their physical condition as their type of playing is really demanding," he said.

Ronny will most likely challenge Peter Gade Christensen, the 1999 All England champion, in the third round. While Marlev will probably face Wong Choon Han, the Malaysia Open champion, in the second round.

Budi Santoso will most likely meet Roslin Hashim of Malaysia in the third round.

"Budi will have to work hard to overcome Roslin as they both have a similar type of playing which relies on long rallies."

Singapore Open champion Hariyanto Arbi, who plans to move to Singapore, will probably meet old hand Rashid Sidek of Malaysia in the third round.

"Observing Hariyanto's recent performance, I believe he can overcome Rashid. In their last meet in the 1996 Olympics, Hariyanto lost to Rashid, but the situation is completely different now," Christian said.