Taufik and Hendrawan out of All England

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia's best hopes in the men's singles Taufik Hidayat and Hendrawan were unexpectedly bundled out of the world's most prestigious badminton event, the US$150,000 2001 Yonex All England Open, in Birmingham on Thursday evening.

The third-round defeats have ruined Indonesia's chances of getting a berth in the men's singles quarterfinals as well as the title leaving men's and mixed doubles pairs to salvage Indonesia's pride.

Sydney Olympic silver medalist Hendrawan, seeded four here, was beaten by China's Chen Hong, seeded 12th, in straight set 13- 15, 3-15 as reported by www.baofe.co.uk on Thursday.

Hendrawan has yet to win an event since the Olympics.

Fifth seed Taufik, who was involved in an argument with the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) prior to the event over his coach Mulyo Handoyo, was defeated 13-15, 10-15 by little known 11th seed Anders Boesen of Denmark.

Taufik was the All England runner-up in 1999 and 2000. His last victory was in the JVC Asian Badminton Championships last November in Jakarta.

In the quarterfinals, Chen Hong will meet eighth seed Dane Kenneth Jonassen who beat Malaysian Ramesh Nathan 15-6, 15-8 while Boesen will then face 10th seed Pulella Gopichand of India who beat 2000 Sydney Olympic gold medalist and third seed of China, Ji Xinpeng, 15-3, 15-9.

Antara reported from Birmingham that both Hendrawan and Taufik made many unforced errors on easy balls.

Budi Santoso, seeded 16th, also bowed to second seed Xia Xuanze of China who won 15-9, 15-5. Xia will face sixth seed Roslin Hashim of Malaysia who defeated Swede Rasmus Wengberg 15- 6, 15-1.

Meanwhile, unseeded Rony Agustinus forced first seed Peter Gade of Denmark to work hard before bowing out 14-17, 10-15 in a breathtaking match. Gade will now meet China's Chen Yu who beat South Korean Shon Seung-mo 17-16, 15-11.

"I let my guard down when I led 11-1 in the first set. Besides, Gade is more experienced than I am. In the second set, I didn't want to give him an easy match," Rony told the news agency.

Coach Agus Dwi Santoso confirmed Rony's lack of experience as the cause of his defeat while saying Indonesia would send young players to more events so as to increase their experiences.

Indonesia's last hope in the women's singles, Yuli Marfuah, bowed out to Julia Mann of England in the third round. Indonesia's third ranker Yuli was defeated 6-11, 11-7, 5-11. Mann will meet Gong Zhichao in the quarterfinals.

Indonesia's top shuttler Lidya Djaelawidjaja was beaten in a single round while second shuttler Ellen Angelina was ousted in the second round.

RCTI will live broadcast the semifinals matches on Saturday at 11:30 p.m. and the final matches on Sunday at 7 p.m.

The quarterfinals were played on Friday afternoon and evening.

"There is nothing we can do about it. The result is the best our women's singles players could achieve," coach Verawaty Fadjrin was quoted as saying by the news agency.

"Technically speaking, their skills are improving but they still have to overcome psychological problems," she added.

Verawaty also predicted that it would take two or three years before Indonesia would have strong women's singles shuttlers again.

Earlier, Deyana Lomban and Carmelita were defeated in the women's doubles second round. China's Zhang Jiewen and Wei Yili defeated the Indonesian duo 15-7, 15-11.

Another Indonesian pair, Indarti Issoliana and Etty Tantri, was also beaten in the second round to another Chinese, this time Gao Ling and Huang Sui 8-15, 8-15.

However, there are still chances in the men's and mixed doubles quarterfinals with the possibility of an all-Indonesian final in the men's doubles.

Three of Indonesia's pairs have secured their berths in the men's doubles quarterfinals. First seeds Flandy Limpele and Eng Hian marched on after defeating the Danish duo of Thomas Hovgaard and Mathias Boe 15-11, 15-6 and will face another Danish duo of seventh seeds Michael Lamp and Jonas Rasmussen.

The unseeded pair of Tony Gunawan and Halim Haryanto beat fifth seeded Simon Archer and Nathan Robertson of England 15-8, 15-8 to meet Denmark's fourth seeds, Martin Lundgaard Hansen and Lars Paaske.

Another unseeded pair, Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto, defeated eighth seeded Zhang Wei and Zhang Jun from China 5-15, 15-12, 15-13 to challenge second seed Jens Eriksen and Jesper Larsen of Denmark.

Meanwhile in the mixed doubles, Indonesia has already secured two pairs in the quarterfinals. If both Indonesian pairs can beat their opponents, there will be all-Indonesian semifinals in the following leg.

Tri Kusheryanto and Indarti will meet first seed Michael Soogard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark. Another Indonesian mixed duo of Bambang Suprianto and Minarti Timur will face seventh seeds Simon Archer and Gail Emms of England. (nvn)