Ecstatic: Maria Febe Kusumastuti celebrates scoring a point in her game against Beatriz Corrales of Spain in the Djarum Indonesia Open qualifying match at Istora Senayan on Monday. Febe won 21-17, 21-17. JP/Wendra Ajistyatama New men's doubles pair Bona Septano/Afiat Yuris Wirawan failed to advance to the main round of the 2013 Djarum Indonesia Open Super Series badminton championship on Monday.

The pair, who reached the semifinals in New Zealand in April, were defeated by China Taipei's Chen Hung Ling/Lu Chia Pin 13-21, 19-21.

In another match, unseeded young pair Hafiz Faisal/Putra Eka Rhoma put up quite a fight but lost 21-13, 15-21, 19-21 to China's Chai Biao/Hong Wei.

The Chinese pair offered a compliment to their Indonesian opponents, conceding that it was one of the toughest games they had endured. They said that Hafiz and Putra seemed to know their weaknesses and attributed the victory to their experience.

They said that they had made a string of mistakes as they were newly paired together this year. They added they had yet to get accustomed to one another's play rhythm.

They praised Indonesian supporters, who they said had livened up the atmosphere.

They hoped for more spectators in the next matches.

Putra said they had given their best and promised to perform even better.

'On paper they had an edge over us, we didn't want to give up just yet. Next time we shall prepare better mentally,' he said.

The other pairs exiting early were Rahmat Adianto/Rangga Yave Rianto and Christopher Rusdianto/Trikusuma Wardhana.

Rahmat/Rangga were beaten 21-8, 21-12 by Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda of Japan, while Christopher/Trikusuma went down to English-Scottish pair Marcus Ellis and Paul van Rietvelde 21-17, 21-18.

Meanwhile, Rendra Wijaya/Rian Sukmawan, Andrei Adistia/Gideon Markus Fernaldi, Roland Alexander/Selvanus Geh and Wahyu Nayaka/Ade Yusuf passed the first obstacle of the tournament quite smoothly.

But only Andrei/Gideon and Wahyu/Ade survived the hurdles up to the third stage of the qualifications while Rendra/Rian were still playing their match against Chen Hung Ling/Lu Chia Pin until late at night.

In the women's doubles event, Indonesia's Nurbeta Kwanrico/Deariska Putri Medita were defeated by India's third seeded Aparna Balan/N. Siki Reddy 9-21, 9-21, while Ravenska Cintya Adifta/Chintia Rhizta Andreti were outplayed by compatriots Melati Daeva Oktaviani/Rosyita Eka Putri Sari 10-21, 13-21.

Melati/Rosyita were runners-up at the Li-Ning Maldives International Badminton Challenge last week.

Five other pairs in the women's doubles event failed to advance.

18-year-old Hana Ramadhani, who reached the semifinals in Maldives, showed persistence against world 64 ranked Natalia Perminova of Russia to scrape out a 25-23, 21-7 winner.

'She looked tense in the second game, I just took the opportunity after seeing her miss many shuttlecocks. She seemed tired already,' said Hana, who had just arrived back to Jakarta in the afternoon.

She revealed that she had only been told that she would participate in the Indonesia Open after she finished her final round in Maldives.

'I arrived at the hotel at 1 pm, took some time to nap and had another match to play at 5 pm,' she said, adding that she did not set certain targets for the tournament.

Hana was later paired against Simone Prutsch of Austria for a place in the third stage of the qualifications. Other Indonesian players still contending a berth in the main round were Maria Febe Kusumastuti, Ana Rovita and Febby Angguni.

In the men's singles event, Kento Momota, who was scheduled to play China's Lin Dan, who withdrew from the tournament due to injury, breezed past Indonesian Dharma Alrie Guna 21-9, 21-11.

The first round of the tournament will be divided into two days. On Tuesday, badminton enthusiasts will be able to witness mixed doubles and women's singles events; the remaining events will be held the next day.

The Tuesday event will include the most anticipated matches in the men's singles with world number one Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia playing China's second generation Wang Zhengming and Indonesia's gold medalist Taufik Hidayat taking on either India's B . Sai Praneeth or Japan's Kento Momota in his last badminton tournament.

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