Taufik, Sony lead RI onward at worlds
Taufik, Sony lead RI onward at worlds
Agencies, Anaheim, California
Men's singles players Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro
spearheaded a superb day for Indonesia at the World Badminton
Championships on Wednesday.
Athens Olympic gold medalist Taufik took a comfortable 15-5,
15-6 victory over the Netherlands' Eric Pang to reach the third
round.
Unseeded Sony, still recovering from a foot injury last year,
upset 12th seeded Christian Kaldau of Denmark 9-15, 15-9, 15-4.
Sixth seeded Taufik should face little trouble in reaching the
quarterfinals. He has never lost a game in his three matches
against Thailand's 11th seeded Boonsak Ponsana, with their most
recent encounter the semifinal in Athens last year.
Sony has a tougher task, taking on world number three Peter
Gade. However, the Indonesian holds a 2-1 record against the
Dane, including wins at the 2004 Thomas Cup, the last time they
met, and 2003 worlds.
All three men's doubles pairs also came through easily. Second
seeded Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto, the 1997 world
champions, beat Rupesh Kumar and Thomas Sanave of India 15-11,
15-11 in their second round encounter.
Fourth seeded Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto thrashed
Tadashi Ohtsuka and Keita Masuda of Japan 15-3 15-6, while
veteran 10th seeds Flandi Limpele and Eng Hian defeated Korea's
Hwang Ji Man and Han Sang Hoon 15-8, 15-10.
Tony Gunawan, one half with Halim Haryanto of the last
Indonesians win a world title in 2001, also advanced in the men's
doubles, but this time playing for the United States with Howard
Bach.
The mixed doubles pairing of Nova Widianto and Lilyana Natsir
kept Indonesia's perfect recrod by outclassing Marko Kroflic and
Mateja Fink of Slovenia 15-1, 15-0.
In other matches, world number one men's singles player Lin
Dan and his female counterpart Zhang Ning both maintained their
blistering form by opening with dominating second-round
victories.
Top seed Lin, who is bidding for his first world championship
title, overpowered Kennevic Asuncion 15-1, 15-3. The 21-year-old
Lin put on a punishing display of power badminton, needing just
20 minutes to win.
Reigning world and Olympic champ Zhang looked equally
impressive in her first women's singles match as she crushed
Taiwan's Huang Chia-Hsin 11-6, 11-2. Both top seeds received byes
through the first round.
Lin next plays Shoji Sato of Japan, who beat Sweden's Rasmus
Wengberg 15-17, 15-7, 15-3.
Sato said he would prepare for the third-round match by
watching video footage of Lin's win over Asuncion.
"I have not beaten Lin Dan but I will try my best," Sato told
Agence France-Presse.
On a day when all the men's top seeds were in action, number
two seed Kenneth Jonassen advanced by crushing Singapore's
Kendrick Lee Yen Hui 15-2, 15-2.
Other seeds to reach the third round on Wednesday included
fourth seed Bao Chunlai, No 7 Chen Hong of China, ninth seeded Ng
Wei of Hong Kong, Gade and fifth seed Chong Wei Lee of Malaysia.
Reigning Olympic and world champion Zhang was never in trouble
against Taiwan's Huang in their 20-minute women's singles match.
"The venue is windier than I expected, so I just tried to have
better control of the shuttlecock," said Zhang, who is seeking to
become the fifth world champion from China in the past 10 years.
Zhang's main rival Xie Xingfang beat Larisa Griga 13-12, 11-2.
Indonesian-born Dutchwoman Mia Audina Tjiptawan dispatched
Maja Kersnik 11-0, 11-2. She has spent just 27 minutes on court
in her first two victories.