Top seeds through to 2nd round of Milo tourney
Moch. N. Kurniawan, Medan, North Sumatra
Top seeds breezed to the second round of the US$11,000 Milo Junior Indonesia Open badminton championship here on the opening day on Wednesday, when Sutiyoso made his first appearance at a tournament in his capacity as new chairman of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI).
Local hope Tommy Sugiarto, who is seeded second, employed a strong defense to deny Dani Rusnindar of Mutiara Bandung club with a 15-7, 15-1 win, while top seed Gong Weiji of China edged out Hetiarachchi N. D of Sri Lanka 15-0, 15-2.
Third seed Lee Cheol-ho of South Korea initially looked to face difficulties against Vicky of Suryanaga Gudang Garam before finally winning 17-16, 15-10.
Tommy said that he just played it safe in his first match and hoped that he could improve his performance in the next matches.
"I simply tried to play as well as I could and concentrate on winning every point. I hope it (the strategy) will continue to work. I know China and Korea have brought their top players," he said after his match held at Pardede stadium.
Meanwhile, Korean shuttler Lee Cheol-ho said that he was surprised by Vicky's resilience.
"Before the match, I thought I would cruise through -- but Vicky's defense and attack proved good and (she) gave me problems during the match. Besides, I also have a problem with the hot weather, so if my match proceeded in three sets I might have lost," he said
The girls' top seeds were also left unchallenged with Lu Lan of China defeating qualifier Eviyanti KD of North Sumatra 11-0, 11-1 in only 15 minutes, and Ha Jeung-un of Korea -- who was the runner up at last year's tournament -- sending home HJ. Sabrina MD Sahat of Brunei with a crushing 11-0, 11-0 win.
Third seed Fransiska Ratnasari of Indonesia thrashed Sianipar Meta Anggita of North Sumatra 11-0, 11-1, while Osaka Aya of Japan struggled in the first set before overcoming Vina of Mutiara Bandung club, West Java, 13-10, 11-1.
Fransiska looked determined to redeem herself after her dismal performance at the Asian Junior Championship, in which she lost to eventual runner-up Lu Lan.
"I lost quite easily to Lu Lan 11-1, 11-2 in the championship, but I will try to beat her by playing patiently if I meet her again," she said. But Francisca will have to tackle Wang Yihan, her likely opponent in the quarterfinals, first.
The first day of the tournament was only watched by some 100 people, but an increased number of spectators are expected to attend the quarterfinals on the weekend.
Meanwhile, Sutiyoso, who was elected PBSI chairman on Saturday, reiterated his campaign to improve badminton here, saying he would change most executives of the association under the previous chairman Chairul Tandjung, to help improve the efficiency of his organization.
"I need to revive the association. We will pick people who have are capable of developing the PBSI and badminton as we will face an uphill task to revive our supremacy," he said.
Sutiyoso, who is Jakarta governor, is expected to finalize the new board of the association in the next two weeks.