Indonesia's mixed doubles and women's doubles badminton pairs cruised through to the third round of the Grand Prix Gold India Open, while the country's top female shuttler, Maria Kristin Yulianti, faced a shock upset in the first round.
Mixed doubles players Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa, who received a bye in the first round, advanced after defeating China's Shen Ye and Ma Jin 21-19, 21-16 in less than half an hour to avenge the defeat by the Chinese pair of Indonesia's other mixed doubles team of Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Jo Novita.
Flandy and Vita, third seed at the event, had withdrawn from the national training camp in February.
"I haven't followed their development since their resignation. But I wish for them to continue moving forward, because as the semifinalists at the Beijing Olympics, they already have a lot of experience playing together," Indonesia head coach Christian Hadinata told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.
Two other Indonesian mixed doubles teams - first-timers Muhammad Rijal and Debby Susanto, and Tantowi Ahmad and Puspita Richi Dili - continued polishing their skills with victories Thursday.
Tantowi and Richi romped past India's Mohita Sachdev and Tanveer Gill 21-3, 21-6, needing only 10 minutes to end the game in Thursday's second round. Rijal and Debby also crushed fourth seeds Baptiste Careme and Laura Choinet of France in straight sets, 21-15, 21-14.
On Wednesday, the country's four women's doubles Komala Dewi and Debby Susanto, Vita Marissa and Nadya Melati, Anneke Feinya Agustin and Annisa Wahyuni, and Jo Novita and Endang Nursugianti all scraped through into the next round of the US$120,000 tournament.
In the men's division, second seed Taufik Hidayat, fifth seed Andre Kurniawan Tedjono, and Tommy Sugiarto, son of badminton icon Icuk Sugiarto, also made their way into the third round.
On Thursday, Taufik defeated India's Arvind Bhat 21-14, 21-11. It wasn't all smooth sailing for the Indonesian team, however, with women's fourth seed Maria Kristin failing to prove her status as the bronze medalist at last year's Beijing Olympics in a 18-21, 21-11, 21-19 first-round loss to Zhang Beiwen of Singapore.
"It was not that surprising, as she has not played in a tournament for quite long," Christian said.
"She still needs more time to recover. We will see later in the evaluation whether she needs to be sent to other international tournaments before the Sudirman Cup."
Due to right-knee injuries, Maria was absent from the recent All England and Swiss Open, as well as the season-opening Malaysia and Korea Super Series tournaments.
