Mia, Taufik out after day of badminton upsets

Mia, Taufik out after day of badminton upsets

By Primastuti Handayani

BANGKOK (JP): Upsets proliferated in the 13th Asian Games
badminton competition on Tuesday, with Indonesia's Mia Audina and
top seed Ye Zhaoying both making early exits at the quarterfinals
stage of the women's singles event.

But the Indonesian mixed doubles pairing of Tri Kusherjanto
and Minarti Timur earned their keep by breaking their jinx
against top seeded Chinese pairing of Liu Yong and Ge Fei.

Taufik Hidayat, who is competing in the Asiad for the first
time, was bundled out of the men's singles, but his teammate
Hendrawan kept alive the country's hopes of victory in
Badminton's blue riband event with a victory over Malaysia's
Roslin Hashim.

Mia lost 11-2, 7-11, 7-11 to Lee Joo-hyun, her second loss to
a South Korean here after her defeat to Kim Ji-hyun in the
women's team semifinals last week.

Fourth seed Kim joined the list of seeded casualties on
Tuesday, crashing out against the local favorite Sujitra
Eakmongkolpaisarn, who won 11-2, 4-11, 11-5.

Mia took the first set with little difficulty, but then
committed a series of unforced to hand the next two sets to Lee.
She lacked determination, particularly at critical points.

"I couldn't concentrate. I wasn't feeling confident and it
made me unable to play well. I did find my touch when I was 10-3
down in the third, but after that I don't know..." she said. "I'm
sorry..."

Mia, who was still in a daze two hours after her match, said
that she was not suffering from any personal problems. Her
boyfriend Tylio Lobman, who is usually at her side during
tournaments, is currently in the Netherlands.

Coach Liang Chiushia said that Mia was lethargic and could not
control her game.

In the semifinals, Lee will meet second seeded Gong Zhichao of
China, who breezed past Malaysia's Ng Mee-Fen 11-7, 11-3.

The other semifinal will pit Sujitra against Kanako Yonekura
of Japan, who pulled off the biggest upset of the day by edging
out world number one Ye. The Japanese woman looked helpless when
she allowed Ye to blank her in the first set, but then fought
back to produce a miraculous 0-11, 13-10, 11-9 victory.

The Indonesian mixed doubles pair of Tri and Minarti, aiming
to end a long title drought, produced a fine display to tame Liu
and Ge 15-7, 15-6.

"When we were leading 12-6 in the second set, I could not
believe that I was only an inch away from victory," Minarti said.

The Indonesians last beat their Chinese nemeses at the Grand
Prix Finals in Jakarta in December last year.

After the match, a jubilant Tri plunged into a water fountain
in the badminton hall.

"I promised myself I would do that if I beat them," said Tri
giggling.

Minarti said the key to their success was their strategy of
attacking Liu, who was not up to his usual standards on
Wednesday. "We avoided feeding Ge because her defense is very
solid," Minarti said.

Tri and Minarti each received a telephone card worth 500 Baht
from the Badminton Association of Indonesia vice chairman Agus
Wirahadikusumah.

"Great, we can make a call home," they said.

Hendrawan won his first encounter with Malaysia's Roslin
Hashim 15-11, 15-6 to make amends for Taufik's 5-15, 13-15 loss
to Dong Jiong of China earlier in the day.

Hendrawan will now get a semifinal rematch with All-England
champion Sun Jun, whom he beat in the men's team final last week.
Sun outplayed Ahn Jae-chang of South Korea 15-9, 17-14 to advance
past the quarterfinal stage.

It will be the seventh time that Hendrawan has met Sun, with
the two currently tied at 3-3 after their previous encounters.
Hendrawan should start the favorite after winning their last
three encounters.

In the other semifinal, Dong will take on Yong Hock Kin of
Malaysia, who ran out a 15-7, 15-4 winner over India's Pullela
Gopichand.