World number one Mia tested at Japan Open
World number one Mia tested at Japan Open
TOKYO (Agencies): Badminton's world number one Mia Audina had to come from behind to beat Marina Andrievskaya of Sweden in the Japan Open yesterday.
The 17-year-old Indonesian, who won a silver medal at the Atlanta Olympics, made a series of forehand errors to go down 0-6 and 3-9 before losing the first game but stormed back to score a 10-12, 11-7, 11-2 win and reach the quarterfinals.
"I don't know what was wrong with my play at the beginning. I lost many points through my own mistakes. I tried to be patient in the second game and finally I could play my game in the final game," said the tournament favorite.
Mia crawled back to tie the first game 10-all but her overhead drop shot went wide to give Andrievskaya her third game point, which the Swede converted with a cross-court winner.
Mia took 10 straight points in the following game to frustrate the Swede and was never really in danger after that, finishing off the 20-minute match on her first match point.
"I never felt nervous, but I tell you the truth ... I don't feel comfortable whenever I play a tall player who hits hard like she does.
"It was the same at the Olympics, but I always start playing better as the matches go on," said Mia.
Mia admitted that she has been under pressure since becoming the first seed in the U.S. Open in October.
"The public were satisfied to see me playing in the final but now they expect me to win," she said.
Her quarterfinal opponent will be world number seven Zhang Ning of China, who beat Japan's Kyoko Komuro 11-5, 12-11.
European player
Camilla Martin of Denmark, the winner of the season-opening Taipei Open last weekend, was the only European player to survive, while Chinese and South Korean players took all the other quarterfinal places.
In the men's singles, Peter Gade Christensen of Denmark and Park Sung-woo of South Korea caused third-round shocks at the tournament.
The 20-year-old Christensen, who upset fellow Danish Olympic champion Poul-Erik Hoyer-Larsen to win the season-opening Taipei Open last weekend, continued his giant-killing run beating second-seeded Rashid Sidek of Malaysia 18-15, 15-4.
Park, the quarterfinalist at Atlanta, used a series of soft- touch shots to stage a come-from-behind victory over Hoyer-Larsen 8-15, 15-7, 15-8 to earn a quarterfinal berth.
Second seed Chinese Gong Zhichao breezed past Mizui's younger sister Yasuko 11-3, 11-7, while joint third seed, defending champion Ye Zhaoying of China, smashed aside Japan's Takako Ida 11-4, 11-7.
Today, Gong will take on South Korea's Kim Ji-hyun, winner over Japan's Kanako Yonekura 11-4, 11-3, while Ye will play another Korean, Ra Kyung-min, who overwhelmed Julia Mann of England 11-2, 11-1.
Lee Joo-hyun of South Korea powered past Charmaine Reid of Canada 11-7, 11-4.
Indonesian mixed doubles Flandy Limpele and Riseu Rosalina cruised to the next round after beating host duo Koji Miya and Tomomi Matsuo 15-8, 15-6.
Flandy and Riseu are to meet Liu Yong and Ge Fe of China, who beat Christian Jakobsen and Maijken Vange of Denmark 15-9, 15-3.
First seed Tri Kusherjanto and Minarti Timur, who received a bye in the initial match, are to meet Hendrik Andersson and Margit Borg, who won against Norio Imai and Haruko Matsuda of Japan 10-15, 15-13, 15-8.