Seeded players triumph in a spiritless match
Seeded players triumph in a spiritless match
By Hidayat Jati
YOGYAKARTA (JP): Seeded national and foreign players
predictably marched into the second round of the 1994 RCTI
Indonesia Open after encountering mostly spunkless, mediocre play
and walkovers yesterday in the malaise-ridden US$166,000
tournament.
Hariyanto Arbi, world number three and recent champion in
Vietnam, won without even stepping onto the courts of the
recently renovated Among Raga indoor stadium, thanks to a
walkover involving the unknown Australian shuttler Hannes Fuchs.
Hariyanto, who is the Open's number two seed, prevailed in
the World Cup invitational tourney in Ho Chi Minh City last week,
after Danish player Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen had his ligament torn
during the early stage of their final fight.
Lauridsen, who was to be seeded fifth here, is absent. The
Danish team chose not to replace him, thus giving a walkover
triumph to Central Javanese Darma Guwawi.
Windfall victories also fell to a member of the Indonesian
national team, George Rimarcdi, who won without breaking a sweat
because his opponent, Ge Cheng of China, failed to show up.
Chinese team manager Zhou Jincan told reporters that Ge Cheng
fell ill just before departing from Beijing. Zhou declined to
comment further.
Even the match between second-rate Malaysian Teng Seo Bock and
Indonesia's Hendrawan, expected by bored observers to be the
least interesting match of the day, resulted in a straight setter
triumph for the Indonesian with 15-11, 15-10 after continuous
unforced errors from both players.
Top-seed and world number one Joko Supriyanto even jokingly
told newsmen that he was scheduled to meet an unknown German
tourist from the street of Malioboro yesterday.
Walking his talk, Joko quickly demolished Hans Jorg Bram 15-0,
15-1 in well under one hour. There were only three changes of
serves during the first set.
Practice
Bram, a 20-year-old unrated player, later told The Jakarta
Post after the game that he had been practicing badminton with
the Jakarta-based club Jaya Raya for the last six weeks. He said
that it was part of his summer-holiday plan after his high-school
graduation.
"Today I was not playing my best game," he said, as he could
have finished his differently against Joko.
"After this, I want to go to university, and then it's bye-bye
badminton," he said.
The International Badminton Federation (IBF), which is in the
middle of a crusade to promote the sport, apparently does not
care for a rigorous selection process for this so-called,
prestigious event.
Meanwhile, all of Indonesian top shuttlers whipped their much
inferior opponents without any apparent trouble whatsoever.
Sixth-seed Alan Budikusuma trashed Singaporean Hamid Khan, an
obviously over-aged, overweight contender, 15-7, 15-2.
About forty minutes later on the same court, fourth-seed
Hermawan Susanto destroyed Jeffrey, a teenage Central Javanese
shuttler 15-11, 15-4.
Third-seed Ardy Wiranata followed suit by punishing Nova
Widianto, from the Jakarta-based club Bimantara Tangkas 15-3, 15-
4.
The same trend of one-sided plays also took place when Uber
Cup heroine Mia Audina trashed her Balinese opponent Sri Martini
11-0, 11-2.
Chinese Liu Yuhong and Swede Catrine Bengtsson all destroyed
their provincial opponents in straight sets.