Shuttler Joko leads Indonesia's march for medals
Shuttler Joko leads Indonesia's march for medals
ATLANTA, Georgia (Agencies): Joko Suprianto, top seed in the
men's singles badminton competition, enjoyed the lightest of
warm-ups in his debut at the Olympic Games on Thursday.
The 30-year-old Surakarta-based player erased his bitter
memory of being denied a place in the Indonesian team four years
ago with an easy 15-1, 15-5 second-round win over Pontus Jantti
of Finland.
Defending Olympic champion Alan Budikusuma and world champion
Hariyanto Arbi completed Indonesia's brisk start with
comfortable victories to cruise through the third round.
All the top eight seeds here received first-round byes.
Joko could have faced a tricky test in Jantti, who already has
the Scottish Open title to his credit and has since been living
and training in Malaysia to try and further improve his standard.
But this was a spectacular no contest, with Joko hardly ever
hitting the shuttle hard, flicking, switching and whipping it
from corner to corner or pushing it deftly tight to the net, and
the first 14 points came his way before Jantti could score.
When he did so it only briefly alleviated the Finn's growing
tension for the best he could subsequently do was to make a mini-
revival from 2-7 to 4-7 in the second game before the invasion of
velvety strokes engulfed him again.
"I'm very happy that the first match was so easy for me to
handle," smiled Joko. "It has been like a warm-up. If I get
through to the quarterfinals I could have a very competitive
match with Rashid Sidek." Malaysian Sidek was a 15-11, 15-7
first-round winner over Andrei Antropov of Russia.
Surprisingly, after such a well-oiled performance Joko did not
regard himself as the favorite.
"There is no favorite. Everyone wants the same thing and is
fighting for the same thing," he said. He did identify fellow
Indonesian Hariyanto and the new world number one Dong Jiong of
China as possible major obstacles en route to the final.
Third seed Hariyanto also won quickly, starting with a 15-5,
15-4 victory over the Indian champion Deepankar Bhattacharya,
while Alan thrashed Thomas Johansson of Sweden 15-5 15-1.
Poul-Erik Hoyer, the second-seeded All-England champion from
Denmark, also started well, although there were one or two lapses
in concentration as he won 15-7, 15-6 against the Ukrainian
Vladislav Druzchenko.
Revenge
"I am here for revenge," the 30-year-old Dane said after the
match. "There is no one else in Europe who is in a position to do
it."
Hoyer-Larsen lost to another Indonesian, Ardy Wiranata, in the
quarterfinals in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. There will be no
real retaliation, however, as silver medalist Ardy failed to
qualify for Atlanta.
Meanwhile, some players complained about having trouble with
air currents in the hall, caused by the air-conditioning system.
Jantii said there was a big drift across the court. "Even though
I knew about it, it confused me a little," he said.
Denmark's Thomas Stuer-Lauridsen said it was difficult to
control the shuttle. "Today was a nightmare," he said. "They've
changed the air-conditioning so the conditions keep changing."
The only surprise in the day's first two sessions came in the
men's doubles in which the fifth seeded Swedes Par-Gunnar Jonsson
and Peter Axelsson were beaten by the improving Germans Michael
Keck and Michael Helber 15-8, 15-13.