RI women's pair given modest target at JVC tourney

RI women's pair given modest target at JVC tourney

The Jakarta Post

JAKARTA: Indonesia's number one women's pairing of Jo Novita and
Lita Nurlita have been given the target of simply reaching the
semifinals of the JVC Asia badminton championship in Jakarta, a
team official says.

The US$150,000 tournament, which suffers from the absence of
the top Chinese players, starts Tuesday with six days of
competition at the Bung Karno indoor tennis courts.

Jo and Lita will likely face a tough challenge from Zeng
Yagiong/Dai Yun in the quarterfinals.

"If they can overcome the Chinese pair in the quarterfinals,
it will have been a job already accomplished," Paulus Firman, a
trainer of the women's doubles, was quoted by Antara as saying
here on Monday.

Paulus said that the toughest opposition would likely come
from Lee Hyo-jung/Hwang Yu-mi in the semifinals. The South Korean
pair beat the Indonesians in last week's Denmark Open and last
year's Dutch Open.

Meanwhile, their male compatriots are more optimistic with
Flandy Limpele/Eng Hian, who won the Denmark Open, being favored
to advance to the finals.

The younger pairing of Luluk Hadiyanto/Alven Yulianto will be
content with a place in the semifinals.

"Strong rivalry will certainly come from Korea," coach Heri
Iman Pierngadi said.

China is most likely to have continued its domination with the
players ranked as they are currently. However, with the
tournament providing no world ranking points, they seem far from
being interested in participating.

The International Badminton Federation has ruled that because
there will be two Asian championships within the qualifying
period for the 2004 Olympics, it is the April, 2004 Asian
tournament that will count for the world rankings.

The late withdrawal of some Chinese participants, which was
done after the draw was completed, would mean fines were issued,
said Sulistyanto, the chairman of the organizing committee.

Those players include world champion Xia Xuanze and Chen Yu in
the men's singles, Zhou Mi and Indonesia Open winner Xie Xinfang
in the women's singles, Cheng Rui and Wang Wei in the men's
doubles and Chen Lin and Jiang Xuelian, and Zhang Yawen and Zhang
Dan in the women's doubles.

Indonesia's Candra Wijaya/Halim Haryanto, and Sigit
Budiarto/Tri Kusharyanto also canceled their participation but
had done so before the draw was completed and therefore would not
be fined.

Sulistyanto said the tournament would also see a farewell
ceremony for former star Hendrawan, who announced his retirement
from badminton last week.