Top seeds advance to second round at Indonesia Open

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Top-seeded shuttlers faced no serious problems in easing through on Wednesday to the second round of the US$170,000 Djarum Indonesia Open at the Bung Karno Tennis Indoor Stadium here.

World number one and tournament's top seed Lin Dan of China defeated Yeoh Kay Bin of Malaysia 15-5, 15-6. Lin was followed by compatriot and second-seeded Bao Chunlai, who conceded only a single point in his 15-0, 15-1 drubbing of Indonesian I Made Citra.

Third-seeded Chen Hong, also from China, sent Budi Santoso of Indonesia off court with 15-4, 15-11.

Indonesia's hopefuls Taufik Hidayat, Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso were also through to the next round.

Taufik, the defending champion and seeded fourth in the tournament, had a smooth win over Sigit Wahyudi 15-2, 15-7, while fifth seed Sony edged out Nathan Rice of England 15-5, 15-0.

Young hopeful Simon upset Ng Wei of Hong Kong 15-5, 15-3, but Marleve Mainaky went down against Wong Choong Hann of Malaysia 15-11, 12-15, 15-5.

Lin Dan went on the attack, but appeared to struggle early on against Yeoh's strong defense. He then changed tactics, which paid off when he forced Yeoh into a string of errors.

In the second round, Lin will meet Zhang Yang of Hong Kong, who won 15-4, 15-6 over Endra Tedjono of Indonesia.

If all goes as predicted, Taufik and Lin will meet each other in the semifinals.

Taufik, who is expected to carry on with his winning form in the Athens Olympics, also did not encounter any problems in his game against Sigit.

"This first match did not force me to go all out, as my opponent did not give me serious trouble out there," Taufik said.

The Olympic gold medalist will play Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama of Hong Kong in the second round. The former Indonesian player beat Herry Setiawan 15-3, 15-3 in round one.

Sony, who was still shrugging off the effects of a thigh injury, had a slow start against Rice, then pulled clear.

"Fortunately, my opponent is not so strong that I couldn win, although I'm still in pain. But I wouldn't have made an excuse had I lost," he said.

He will face Tai Allan of Malaysia, who had a walkover win over Agustinus Ekop Sartono of Indonesia.

Meanwhile, women's shuttlers will take to the courts on Thursday, when the top three singles seeds will play against unknown Indonesians: Top seed Pi Hongyan of France will meet Gilang Vega; second-seeded Xie Xingfang of China will meet Sylviana Kurniawan and third-seeded Jun Jae Youn of Korea will meet Yuswandari Aprilia.

In the mixed doubles, sixth-seeded Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir of Indonesia advanced to the next round upon defeating compatriots Bona Septano/Meidiyani 15-6, 15-6. In the women's doubles, however, Indonesia lost its best pair when Jo Novita/Lita Nurlita went down to top-seeded Yang Wei/Zhang Jiewen 13-15, 15-3, 15-8.