RI expects gold from tennis, badminton
Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Busan, South Korea
Indonesia's gold medal prospects in the 14th Asian Games remain open after its women's doubles tennis pair of Angelique Widjaja and Wynne Adiati Prakusya on Friday booked their berth in the final.
Seeded first here, the Indonesians had to work very hard before defeating Japan's Saori Obata and Akiko Morigami 6-3, 3-6, 9-7.
Angie, as Angelique is widely known, and Wynne wasted their 5- 2 lead in the third game allowing the Japanese to catch up before winning the decider.
In the final, they will meet the host pair of Kim Mi-ok and Choi Young-ja, who defeated the Japanese pair of Yuka Yoshida and Miho Saeki 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 on Friday.
"I could not work on my returns and serves while our opponents were getting more confident seeing our awkwardness," Angie said.
"I was very nervous. It was difficult to move."
Angie also admitted that she was not playing her best and was lacking confidence.
"But that's the game. You either win or you lose," she said.
Gold medals are also expected from Indonesia's badminton players, most of whom advance on Friday to the next round of the individual events, excluding mixed doubles pair Tri Kusheryanto and Emma Ermawati, who were stopped in their quarterfinals match.
Tri and Emma, seeded third here, took the first set with an 11-6 victory against Chinese pair Chen Qiqiu and Zhang Jie Wen. The Chinese pair, however, forced a rubber set by winning the second game 11-6.
Both pairs were involved in a neck-and-neck race before the Indonesians lost 9-11 in the third set.
The Chinese no go on to challenge the first seeds, Koreans Kim Dong-moon and Ra Kyung-min.
Indonesia, however, has already secured a bronze medal as another mixed doubles pair, Nova Widhianto and Vita Marissa, secured their semifinals berth.
The second-seeded Indonesians defeated Zhang Jun and Gao Ling 11-7, 11-4.
Nova and Vita will now go on to meet fourth seed Sudhisodhi Khunakorn and Saralee Thungthongkam of Thailad, who defeated hosts Lee Jae-jin and Hwang Yu-mi 11-9, 10-13, 11-9.
A relatively easier run was had by Indonesian men's singles shuttlers in their second round matches.
Taufik Hidayat had no trouble in stopping Japan's Masuda Keita with a 15-3, 15-2 victory to secure his quarterfinals berth. Taufik will now meet rising star Hashim Muhammad Hafiz of Malaysia, who defeated China's Chen Hong 15-7, 11-15, 15-5.
Second singles player Hendrawan defeated Indonesian-born Ronald Susilo of Singapore 15-8, 15-5 to challenge first seed Xia Xuanze of China.
In two other quarterfinals matches, third seed Malaysian Wong Choong Hann will meet host Lee Hyun-il and second seed Shon Seung-mo of South Korea is set to face Pullela Gopichand of India.