Playing doubles offers as much prestige as singles

By Arif Suryobuwono

JAKARTA (JP): "Two are better than one," King Solomon said. "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken."

This synergism is the glory of playing doubles. But this glory does not explain why many Indonesian shuttlers are now happy to play in duos instead of playing singles which offers the glory of reigning as king or queen of the sport.

The glory they are after, as coach Christian Hadinata put it, is the honor now enjoyed by the world number one men's pair of Ricky Subagja and Rexy Mainaky.

"Ricky and Rexy have shown that playing doubles is by no means less prestigious than playing singles," Hadinata told The Jakarta Post.

The ace pair have charted a very excellent career course, perhaps the longest one ever, unparalleled by other world-class partnerships. The almost unbeatable doubles team has maintained their top billing for well over two years now since winning the Swedish Open in early 1994.

"It is not surprising that many of our junior shuttlers now eye careers in the doubles," Hadinata said.

Imelda Wiguna, who is in charge of scouting, selecting and training female shuttlers for playing doubles, confirmed the trend.

A particularly promising pair under her charge are Deyana Grisye Susanti Lomban and Indarti Isolina, whom she combined in December last year. They broke the world-beating partnership of Kim Shin-young and Kim Mei-yang of South Korea 15-6, 15-3 in the Seiko Asian Badminton Championships in Surabaya, East Java recently.

"That Lomban and Isolina managed to beat the Korean second- stringers so clearly indicates that they have very good potential to someday reach the world number one status," Wiguna told the Post.

Hence, Wiguna said, she would never part the pair. "But technically, they are not yet mature due to lack of experience," Wiguna added, "Physically, Isolina is too thin. Lomban is not that thin, but she still needs to gain some muscular solidity."

Wiguna is right. What she said was apparent when the pair, despite their never-say-die efforts, went down 15-5, 18-15 to the country's most experienced partnership of Lili Tampi and Finarsih in a test game in Bandung, West Java on Saturday.

However, both Isolina and Lomban have no idea why they play doubles. "What I know was that Imelda asked me to team up with Lomban," Isolina said, revealing the braces on her teeth.

"Perhaps I was not good at singles," she said, recalling that she won more in doubles than in singles.

Lomban said, "It just happened that I play doubles more often. Perhaps that's why I end up playing doubles."

If Isolina and Lomban are the divas in the women's doubles, in the men's doubles, the rising stars are Tony Gunawan and Rudy Widjaja.

This attack-minded junior pair tasted the sweetness of beating the world number one Ricky and Rexy 15-12, 3-15, 15-6 in the Indonesia Open in July last year.

However, both Tony and Rudy said they still lack power and are not very good at maintaining defense. Tony added that their performance is still unstable.

This was confirmed by their coach, Hadinata. He said Tony and Rudy were at their best when playing against much stronger opponents who are ranked far above them. "Perhaps because they feel there is nothing to lose and thus, play it freely," Hadinata said.

They seem to have unnecessary difficulty if pitted against poorly ranked contenders, however. "This, again, is psychological," Hadinata said, "because they, fully aware of their world number seven status, fear losing to someone below their ranking."

This is typical for many Indonesian shuttlers. In doubles, at least, the fear is shared.