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.