RI makes short work of Swedes
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Indonesia found its stride on Wednesday, wasting little time in disposing of Sweden in Beijing to reach the semifinals of the Sudirman Cup mixed team badminton championship.
The team, bidding to win the cup for only the second time in its 16-year history, triumphed by the same 4-1 score as its first-round defeat of Hong Kong in Group B on Tuesday.
This time, however, its first round nerves were not as evident, with a more focused Indonesian team giving away few chances to the outclassed Scandinavians.
Next up, however, is the daunting prospect of meeting China in the last group match on Thursday. The host squad, who thrashed Sweden without losing a game on Tuesday, was similarly ruthless in its drubbing of Hong Kong on Wednesday.
The two teams from each group advance to the winner-vs-runner up crossover semis.
Sudirman Cup team manager Christian Hadinata was pleased with the victory but said his players were still not playing at their optimal level.
"Our opponents were below those of last night, and I think our performance is still not as good as we want," he told The Jakarta Post by phone from Beijing.
He acknowledged the difficulty in facing China, because "it's hard to find a weakness, the Chinese are strong on all levels ... but when you face a tougher opponent, it forces you to play to a higher level".
For the second day in a row, Indonesia's campaign was led by Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir in the mixed doubles. The 2005 All England semifinalists were given a scare in the first game, falling behind 1-11 and 8-13 before clawing their way back to beat Fredrik Bergstrom/Johanna Persson 15-13, 15-6.
Taufik Hidayat, in contrast to his unimpressive defeat of Ng Wei on Tuesday, had too much weaponry for Hugi Heimirsson, who was dismissed 15-1, 15-7 .
As with the Hong Kong tie, Indonesia surrendered its only match in the women's singles. Adrianti Firdasari, replacing Fransisca Ratnasari, fought hard against Elin Bergblom, taking the middle game but running out of steam in the last few points in a 7-11, 11-6, 11-13 loss.
Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto then took the court to put the tie beyond Sweden's reach, romping past Henrik Andersson/Joakim Hansson 15-3, 15-7 in 32 minutes.
Jo Novita and Lita Nurlita were last up for the meaningless fifth match against Bergblom and Persson, edging the Swedes 15- 13, 15-12.
In the afternoon matches in group A, defending champions South Korea secured a semifinal berth with an easy 5-0 win over England, while Denmark, who have never won the championship, saw off Thailand 4-1 to bag their spot in the last four.
Christian said it was hard to pick a winner between evenly matched Denmark and Korea, who will also meet on Thursday.
"The Korean women's singles is better, and so is the women's doubles, but the three others are about the same. I think the Koreans will just have the edge."