No more upsets for Simon, Kristin; Sony goes it alone

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Simon Santoso and Maria Kristin Yulianti, Thursday's local giant killers in the singles competitions, saw their campaigns halted a day later in the quarterfinals of the US$250,000 Djarum Indonesia Open.

It is up to 14th seeded men's singles player Sony Dwi Kuncoro to fly the Indonesian flag alone in Saturday's singles semifinal in Senayan, Central Jakarta. Play begins at 12:30 p.m.

Simon, who shocked World and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat, was unable to pull off another upset on Friday, succumbing to eight seeded Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand 16-17, 6-15.

Japan's fifth seed Kaori Mori overcame an impatient Kristin, who upset second seed Yao Jie of the Netherlands on Thursday, 11- 1, 11-9.

Sony, fresh from his victory earlier this month in the Asian Championships in Hyderabad, overcame 2003 World Championship finalist and sixth seed Wong Choon Hann of Malaysia 15-3, 15-6.

He will face seventh seed Lee Hyun Il of South Korea, a 15-13, 15-8 winner over second seed Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, on Saturday while Boonsak will challenge top seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark.

Jonassen booked his semifinal place after defeating Yeoh Kay Bin of Malaysia 15-10, 15-2.

The early afternoon crowd in Istora sports hall hoped that Simon would display the same heroics of his victory over Taufik against the Thai, who is ranked 25 places higher than him at 15 and won their only previous encounter last year.

The 20-year-old Indonesian started confidently, keeping up the attack with jumping smashes.

The players were tied at 5-5 before the Thai opened up a five- point lead on the back of unreturnable drop shots and smashes.

Simon tried to stop the flow of errors from his racket with soft net shots that worked in drawing mistakes from his opponent, and the score teetered at 8-10 and 8-12.

The Indonesian stuck to his net play strategy, clawing his way back to 14-13 before Ponsana leveled and then held game point at 16-14. Simon forced deuce, and it seemed that whoever held their nerve and won the first game would probably take the match.

After a nervy exchange of service, a crosscourt drop shot from the Thai that wrongfooted Simon was enough to seal the game, and it was one-way traffic for the Thai from then on. He will play top seed Kenneth Jonassen of Denmark on Saturday.

"I never played in such a tight score before," Simon said of the first game. "I was nervous on that last point."

Simon's coach Joko Suprianto said he shouted at his player to retrieve the Thai shot on game point.

"He told me that his right hand was so heavy on the final point that he hesitated to hit the shuttlecock," Joko said.

Kristin played a rushed first game, although she made more of a match of it in the second, reaching 9-8 before the Japanese closed it out.

"I played impatiently today and wanted to attack her quickly. It boomeranged on me as I made some mistakes," Kristin said. "I should have played like I did against Yao Jie."

In the day's biggest upset, eighth seeded Indonesian-born Mia Audina defeated top seeded women's singles player Pi Yongyan, formerly of China but now competing for France, 11-6, 11-6.

In the mixed doubles, Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir sent home Koreans Lee Yong Dae/Ha Jung Eun 15-5, 15-4, while Anggun Nugroho/Yunita Tetty finally edged compatriots Devin Lahardi/Vita Marissa 9-15, 17-16, 15-10.

In the men's doubles semifinals, Candra Wijaya/Sigit Budiarto face fifth seeds Carsten Mogensen/Mathias Boe of Denmark, and seventh seeds Markis Kidho/Hendra Setiwan meet Lee Wan Wah/Choong Tan Fook of Malaysia.