RI makes short work of Swedes

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."