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t has been a bleak start to the new year for Indonesia’s badminton elite, who are chasing points to qualify for the London Olympics, as none of them reached the semifinals of the Badminton World Federation’s (BWF) season opening Korea Open Superseries Premier in Seoul, South Korea.

Mixed doubles pairing Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, women’s doubles pairing Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhari, and men’s singles player Simon Santoso — were all dumped out of Friday’s quarterfinals.

Duo Tontowi and Liliyana surrendered in the hands of hosts Lee Yong-dae and Ha Jung-eun, 16-21, 21-15, 16-21, in the US$1 million tournament.

Eighth seeded women’s doubles pairing Greysia and Meiliana failed to make the semifinals after they were beaten 21-8, 21-9 by the host’s fourth seeded pair Ha Jung-eun and Kim Min-jung.

Ha and Kim also beat the world No. 8 Indonesians at last September’s Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold, where Greysia suffered a shoulder injury.

“I have to have more to regain my power. My injury has healed, but my power is still at 70 percent. At the match just now, the opponents apparently had learned about my condition, thus strategically kept feeding us lobs,” said Greysia, as quoted by the official website of the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) on Friday.

“Today we’ve lost, but I have enjoyed this process and am determined to continue to rebuild my confidence. I won’t be worrying or regretting too much during this post-injury period.”

Eighth seeds Simon Santoso, who was the country’s last remaining player in the singles draw, lost 16-21, 19-21 to unseeded Du Pengyu of China.

Simon said he would make use of the next few days ahead to fully recover for the next tournament in Malaysia. The red-and-white squad will continue their London Olympics qualifying campaign at the Malaysia Open Superseries next week.

The hosts’ three pairings — Jung Jae-sung/ Lee Yong-dae to face Kim Ki-jung/Kim Sa-rang, while Ko Sung-hyun/ Yoo Yeon-seong take on Cai Yun/Fu Haifeng — dominated in the men’s doubles.

China continued to dominate the women’s singles, with three players — Wang Yihan, Jiang Yanjiao and Wang Shixian — making the semi-finals, along with South Korean Bae Youn-joo.

Men’s singles player Du Pengyu will meet world No. 1 Malaysian Lee Chong Wei, while Lin Dan will face Sho Sasaki of Japan.

In the semifinals of the mixed doubles, surprise victors Alexandr Nikolaenko and Valeri Sorokina of Russia will play host pair Lee Yong-dae and Ha Jung-eun, while Danish pair Joachim Fischer Nielsen/ Christinna Pedersen will take on Xu Chen/ Ma Jin of China. In the Chinese women’s doubles, Wang Xiaoli/ Yu Yang will face host pair Ha Jung-eun/ Kim Min-jung, while South Koreans Jung Kyung-eun/ Kim Ha-na will face Tian Qing/ Zhao Yunlei.