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Jakarta Post

Indonesia desperate to add second trophy

The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) officially announce Tuesday its 35-member squad for the Sudirman Cup in Guangzhou, China

Agnes Winarti (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Thu, May 7, 2009

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Indonesia desperate to add second trophy

The Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) officially announce Tuesday its 35-member squad for the Sudirman Cup in Guangzhou, China.

Scheduled to depart Wednesday, the team comprises 12 men's and eight women's players, seven coaches, two paramedics and six officials.

The biennial world badminton mixed-team event will run from May 10-17.

"We aim to bring the Sudirman Cup back to the country," said PBSI chairman Djoko Santoso during the ceremony at the Cipayung training camp in East Jakarta.

"We realize rivalries among badminton-playing countries have escalated, while we have not shown great achievements in the Super Series tournaments.

"It's time for us to focus and concentrate on winning," he added.

The buildup to the championship has been discouraging for Indonesian shuttlers. Only a handful have attained success in the preceding Super Series.

World No. 1 mixed doubles pair Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir were the only Indonesian players to triumph at the Malaysia Open at the beginning of the year.

At the All England Open in Birmingham, no Indonesian singles players reached the finals.

Nova and Liliyana, Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Simon Santoso, Adrianti Firdasari and Pia Zebadiah Bernadet were all defeated in the earlier rounds.

Worse followed at the Swiss Open in Basel, Switzerland. None of the country's shuttlers made it to the semifinals.

Due to injury, top-ranked men's doubles pair Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan were absent from the two tournaments in Europe, before coming back to salvage Indonesian pride by winning the Asian Championship in Suwon, South Korea, in April.

Besides Kido, Maria Kristin and Sony are among those who have already experienced playing in the Sudirman Cup. However, the three players are still recovering from old injuries.

When asked about his waist injury, Sony simply said, "I'm OK with it and ready to fight."

Maria said, "I just don't want to think about it too much."

This year, the PBSI is marking a breakthrough by sending a relatively young squad, half of whom are first-timers in the Sudirman Cup. They include Tommy Sugiarto in the men's singles, Bona Septano/Muhammad Ahsan and Rian Sukmawan/Yonatan Suryatama in the men's doubles, Shendy Puspa Irawati/Meliana Jauhari and Nitya Krishinda in the women's doubles, mixed doubles player Devin Lahardi and reserve player Fran Kurniawan.

Head Coach Christian Hadinata hoped the first-timers would view their participation in this year's Sudirman Cup as an honor rather than a burden.

"Never take this Sudirman Cup assignment as a burden. Take it as an honor. In addition to that, I also hope the senior players are consistent in their performance to inspire their juniors," he said.

Indonesia won the championship, named after Indonesian badminton legend and PBSI founder Dick Sudirman, in 1989.

China has won it six times and Korea three times. Indonesia has finished as runner-up six times.

The draw for the first-round matches will see second seed Indonesia playing in the same group as third seed China, Japan and England.

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