RI seeking 5th straight Thomas Cup title

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Guangzhou, China

The Indonesian Thomas Cup team is ready to beat the odds in its campaign to make history by winning the coveted trophy five times in a row.

"It is very important for us (to win the cup). We have won the trophy four times earlier and now it is time to make it five times consecutively," team manager Christian Hadinata told reporters here.

"We are ready to throw down the gauntlet," he added.

Asked whether Indonesia would seek to prevent facing host China in the semifinals for a place in the final, Christian said he would not be preoccupied with such a strategy.

"We are not up for it. The shuttlers will do their best against whomever the opponent is," he said.

"We will keep focused and try to take every match."

Indonesia has twice held the Cup four times in succession, first from 1969 to 1979 and from 1994 to the present.

In Thomas Cup history no country has hoisted the cup five straight times, and only Indonesia has done it four times. There are three countries which have won three straight.

Malaysia won the inaugural event in 1948 and repeated twice more until 1955, followed by Indonesia from 1957 to 1964 and then China from 1986 until 1992.

In total, Indonesia has won 12 of the 21 Thomas Cup contests.

Indonesia is in Group A together with new-comer Germany, arch- rival Malaysia and Thailand. Indonesia's first opponent will be Thailand on Friday.

Thailand looks to rely heavily on its number one singles player, Boonsak Polsana and top doubles team of Pramotee Teerawiwatana and Teesana Panvisvas to steal points from Indonesia.

"We hope we can reach the semifinals but it will be very hard as our other players are weak," Thailand's coach Udom Luangphetcaraporn said.

"To add to our problems, Thailand lost to Malaysia at the semifinals of the qualifying round in Melbourne, Australia. We must work hard to be on par with Malaysia."

The next opponent for Thailand will be long-time nemesis Malaysia on Sunday.

"The real competition in Group B is only between Indonesia and Malaysia. Both countries have similar skills," coach Indra Gunawan said.

"But for Malaysia, Thailand can be the dark horse to get in the way of our campaign," he added.

Indra, who hails from Indonesia, warned other teams against taking Indonesia lightly, although the players turned in some relatively poor performances at the individual Grand Prix series recently.

"Indonesia's shuttlers are quite experienced with a similar level of skills. They also have Taufik Hidayat and Hendrawan as their second and third singles, who could play an equally important role for Indonesia," he said.

"With such a resource, Indonesia can easily take two points from the singles matches. The third will probably come from their number one doubles, Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto," he added.

Indonesia's last opponent in the qualifying round will be newcomer Germany, which preferred a modest approach when discussing its chances against the world's badminton powerhouses.

"It is not the time for us to compete with Indonesia and Malaysia but we hope that we can steal one match against Thailand," said head coach Steen Pedersen. "We are here to learn and improve the skills of our young players."

Meanwhile, Group B has host China, Denmark, South Korea and Sweden.