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.