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ndonesian veteran shuttler Taufik Hidayat stopped the opposition of Karunaratna Dinuka of Srilanka 21-14, 21-9 in the men’s single round 16 and booked his place at the quarterfinals of the 16th Asian Games at Tianhe Gymnasium in Guangzhou on Thursday.

“In the first two single matches, Taufik found relatively easy bouts. In the first match, Taufik easily defeat Hsieh Yu Hsing of Chinese Taipei 21-16, 21-12 although in the previous team match Taufik won in rubber set. He might have been a little tired,” Indonesian team manager Yacob Rusdiyanto told The Jakarta Post.

“Karunaratna was even easier to defeat as his rank was way lower than Taufik.”

Yacob is optimist that the the 2004 Athens Olympic Games gold medalist will defeat Park Sunghwan of South Korea on Friday match.

“Although Park Sunghwan has frequently defeat [world number four] Lin Dan, he has never won against Taufik so I believeTaufik will outdone him,” said Yacob.

Earlier in the day, mixed-pair Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir failed to continue their way into the quarterfinals at the Tianhe Gymansium, after a surprise winning against pair Koo Kien Keat and Woon Khe Wei of Malaysia on Wednesday.

The relatively new pair was defeated by Cheng Wen Hsing and Chen Hung Ling of Chinese Taipei 21-17, 21-15.

“At the beginning of the match I was not sure whether we could win. We have won the previous two matches against them,” said Ahmad Tontowi after the game.

“I think Liliyana [Natsir] showed her usual skill level, but I didn’t do well. In the second game, I made several mistake in smashing and receiving. I kept on playing but I am feeling down now.”

Cheng Hung Ling noticed that Tontowi made many mistakes.

Another mixed double pair Fran Kurniawan Teng and Pia Zebadiah Bernadet were also crashed out in the round 16 after surrendered to the host players Hanbin He and Jin Ma 21-15, 18-21, 16-21.

“Fran and Pia were nearly winning as they have lead 11-4 in the third set, but again, they are very young and the Chinese pair is more experienced,” said Yacob. “The Chinese pair is a tough one as former World No. 1 pair Nova [Widianto] and Liliyana [Natsir] are frequently defeated by them.”

Men’s double pair Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, who defeat Japanese Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hakayama on Wednesday night match, will play Hung Ling Chen and Yu Lang Lin of Chinese Taipei on Thursday night match.

Pair Mohammad Ahsan and Alvent Yulianto Chandra beat Zhendong Guo and Chen Xu of China 14-21, 21-19, 21-16 on Thursday evening match. The Indonesian pair will meet either Koo Kean Keat and
Tan Boo Heong of Malaysia or Hirokatsu Hashimoto and Noriyasu Hirata of Japan in a semifinal match on Friday.

Women’s single Adriyanti Firdasari crashed out at round of 16 on Wednesday as she was defeated
by Mew Choo Wong of Malaysia 21-19, 21-18.