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n Indonesian team was defeated the quarterfinal round of the Thomas Cup badminton championship for the first time since 1958.

Coming to Wuhan, China, with a high expectation of surviving a bit longer in the Thomas and Uber Cup championships, the Thomas Cup team headed home early after a 3-2 loss to underdogs Japan in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.

“This has happened for the first time in our history. It is such a concern. They [The Thomas team] did not even reach the semifinals,” Indonesian coach coordinator for doubles Christian Hadinata told The Jakarta Post.

Indonesia has never missed a Thomas Cup semifinal round since 1958 and has won the title 13 times since the tournament was held for first time in 1948-49. Apart from Indonesia, only two other nations have won the cup. China, which did not begin to compete until 1982, has eight titles while Malaysia has won it five times.

Indonesia has been runner-up five times, China twice and Malaysia eight times.

Meanwhile in the Uber Cup, Indonesia was hanging on. In the third match, its women’s singles world No. 39, Adrianti Firdasari, upset world No. 24 Eriko Hirose 21-13, 22-20, [21-14] to make it 2-1.

Earlier, Indonesian women’s singles world No. 33 Maria Febe Kusumastuti was beaten 21-14, 21-10 by world No. 15 Sayaka Sato; women’s pair No. 9 Greysia Polii and Meiliana Jauhrai lost 21-18, 15-21, 21-19 to Mizuki Fujii and Reika Kakiiwa.

Later in the day, Indonesian world pair No. 19 Anneke Feinya Agustin and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari were up against world No. 6 Mami Naito and Shizuka Matsuo; if Anneke and Nitya lost this match Indonesia would head home. However should the pair win, Indonesian world No. 57 Lindaweni Fanetri would take on world No. 32 Minatsu Mitani to hopefully pull the team through to the semifinals.

In Wednesday’s quarterfinals, Indonesian world No. 9 Simon Santoso in the men’s singles built a firm foundation for his squad by upsetting world No. 6 Sho Sasaki 22-20, 21-14.

In the second match, Japan equalized after its men’s pair Noriyasu Hirata and Hirokatsu Hashimoto upset Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 21-18.

In a critical situation, Indonesia put up world No. 12 Taufik Hidayat to secure the lead. Helpless, Taufik lost 21-12, 21-17 to Japan’s world No. 8 Kenichi Tago.

Indonesian world pair No. 6 Mohammad Ahsan and Alvent Yulianto Chandra fought back to make it 2-2, outclassing Hiroyuki Endo and Kenichi Hayakawa 21-17, 21-13.

Hanging their hopes on world No. 22, Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka, the Indonesian team packed their bags after he was beaten 21-14, 21-19 by world No. 38 Takuma Ueda.

Hayom apologized following his failure. “I apologize to all Indonesians. Because of my defeat we have not advanced to the semifinals,” Hayom said as quoted by Antara.

The 23-year-old, the third highest-ranking Indonesian player, admitted that he was burdened by the must-win expectation. “The tension was very high. But I tried my best to shake it off and be more focused.”

Hayom lauded Ueda’s confidence during the match, which prevented him from developing his game.

“We actually had our best roster to face Japan. If you see that yesterday [Tuesday] we did not deploy our top-form line-up, it was because today we would have such important matches to advance,” said Christian, referring to Taufik’s absence in Tuesday’s battles against China to determine the topspot and runner-up in the group stage.