Mia beats Cindana on 1st day of Taipei Open

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's women shuttlers had to pack their luggage early after crashing out of the five-star Chinese Taipei Open in Tapei on Wednesday on the opening day.

The country's top female player, Cindana Hartono, fifth seeded here, was upset by former Indonesian number one Mia Audina, who reached the main draw after winning 8-11, 8-11.

"Mia performed well today and Cindana was unable to overcome Mia's aggressive attacks. Mia still showed her talent and skills although she didn't perform as well as she used to in her glory days," coach Imelda Wiguna said in a telephone interview.

Mia moved to the Netherlands last year after marrying her Surinamese boyfriend, who holds Dutch citizenship.

The other national female shuttlers, Lidya Djaelawidjaja, Ellen Angelina and Ninik Masrikah, also had to sit on the bench having lost their qualifying matches.

Lidya lost to Sweden's Marina Andrievskaya, Ellen was defeated by seventh seed Kelly Morgan of Wales while Ninik was beaten by second seed Kim Ji-hyun of South Korea.

In the women's doubles, Indonesian shuttlers managed to reach the second round. Third seeds Elysa Nathanael and Deyana Lomban beat Joanne Right and Gail Enn of England 15-8, 15-8, while the mixed doubles specialists Minarti Timur and Zelin Resiana had an easy win over Suhlien Lee and Lishuan Chen of Chinese Taipei 15- 1, 15-4. Vita Marissa and Emma Ermawati also reached the second round after beating the Italian pairing of Maria Mur and Agnes Allegrini 15-7, 15-12.

In the men's doubles, old hands Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky cruised to the second round thanks to the absence of the Danish pair Lars Paaske and Martin Lundgard Hansen who retired due to Hansen's arm injury.

Second seeds Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan crushed Sweden's Frederick Bengstorm and Hendrik Andersen 15-6, 15-2, while fourth seeds Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian beat qualifiers Yuso Kubota and Takuya Katayama of Japan 15-12, 15-7.

Antonius and Denny Kantono defeated Michael Lamb and Jonash Rasmussen of Denmark 15-6, 15-8. The Indonesians will face Malaysians Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock.

"Tomorrow will be a tough day for Antonius and Denny because the Malaysians are being groomed for the Thomas Cup in May and they have showed great improvement in previous tournaments. On paper, the other doubles have a great chance to win in the second round matches," coach Herry Imam Pierngadi said. (yan)