Playing doubles offers as much prestige as singles

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.