RI men's, mixed doubles still in Japan Open quarters

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesian shuttlers fared poorly on Thursday at the US$180,000 Japan Open in Tokyo, with the men's singles and women's doubles shuttlers crashing to ignominious defeat.

That left the men's doubles and mixed doubles shuttlers as Indonesia's only remaining representatives in the tournament.

In the men's doubles, All England champions Tony Gunawan and Halim Heryanto, seeded fifth, enjoyed a comfortable win over Indonesian Harmono Yuwono and Japanese Yasunori Sekine 15-8, 15- 6.

The Indonesians should expect to face a stiffer challenge when they meet top seeds Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen of Denmark in the quarterfinals. The Danes advanced by trouncing Liu Kwok-wa and Albertus Susanto Njoto of Hong Kong 15-6, 15-4.

Indonesia's former world champions Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto faced a bit more resistance in their men's double match, though they managed to overcome Indonesian Reony Mainaky and Japanese Keita Masuda 15-8, 15-12 to move on to the quarterfinals.

Their next opponents will be Ma Che-kong and Yau Kwun-yuen of Hong Kong, who pulled of the upset over third seeds Michael Sogaard and Jim Laugesen of Denmark, winning 15-13, 15-11.

Indonesian coach Herry Imam Pierngadi said in a telephone interview from Tokyo his men's doubles teams had been at the top of their games so far.

"I just hope Halim can maintain his form because he and Tony are going to face a tough challenge tomorrow. It all depend on Halim. As for Candra and Sigit, they had to stretch out a bit today but it's good for them and will help them regain the form they had about four years ago."

The new mixed doubles partnership of Indonesians Tri Kusheryanto and Indarti Issoliana crushed the seventh seeds Frederik Bergstrom and Jenny Karlsson of Sweden 15-3, 15-7. Their victory sets up an encounter with China's Liu Yong and Cheng Jiao, who upset third seeds Ian Sullivan and Gail Emms of England 15-8, 15-17, 15-10.

Grizzled veterans Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur earned a surprise victory over fifth seeds Graham Hurrell and Sarah Hardaker of England 13-15, 15-10, 15-5 in another mixed doubles match. In the quarterfinals the Indonesians will face a formidable task in second seeds Jens Eriksen and Mette Schjoldager of Denmark, who rolled over Ha Tae-Kwon and Lee Kyung-Won of South Korea 15-6, 15-5.

The new mixed doubles pairing of Indonesia's Nova Widhianto and Vita Marissa, seeded sixth here, ousted Norio Imai and Chikako Nakayama of Japan 15-10, 13-15, 15-9. They will slug it out in the quarterfinals with China's Zhang Wei and Huang Sui, who defeated Nathan Robertson and Donna Kellogg of England 15-4, 15-8.

Indonesia's lone women's doubles team of Indarti and Deyana Lomban failed to fulfill their lofty ambition of reaching the semifinals, crashing out to Chinese Taipei's Chien Yu-chin and Cheng Wen-hsin 15-9, 17-14.

Bow out

Two Indonesian men's singles shuttlers survived their second- round tests on Thursday, but bowed out in the third round later on Thursday.

Rony Agustinus made a big splash in the tournament by ousting Sydney 2000 Olympics champion Ji Xinpeng of China 15-5, 15-10 in the second round, but that was as far as he could go.

"I feel my form today was far from what it was in Sydney. I didn't move well to my left and I couldn't do well in defense against my opponent's attacks. I must improve everything, not only defense," Ji was quoted as saying by AFP.

Rony's jubilation soon turned into tears after he suffered an 8-15, 15-9, 15-0 defeat at the hands of England's Colin Haughton in the third round later in the day.

Indonesia's Marlev Mainaky, seeded fifth, expended a lot of energy in eliminating Ramesh Nathan of Malaysia 8-15, 15-3, 15-7 in the second round, but then fell to Lee Hyun-il of South Korea 15-10, 15-11 later in the day.

Top seed Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark cruised into the third round after beating Sairul Amar Ayob of Malaysia 15-6, 15- 7.

But his success was not followed by girlfriend Camilla Martin, the top seed here, who made a surprise early exit as she bowed out to Zhang Ning of China 1-11, 11-8, 11-7.

"When I saw the draw, I saw that I had to play Camilla in the early rounds. So my goal in this tournament was to play Camilla, nothing more. I'm really happy that I got past the hurdle," said a jubilant Zhang.

"I couldn't cope with her speed in the first game, she played very quickly, so I changed the pace in the second and third games and just tried to be patient. That was the key to the victory." (yan)