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.