Indonesia'€™s hopes for a world junior mixed team championship title crumbled after its young shuttlers lost to their Chinese rivals in the finals in Alor Setar, Malaysia, on Friday.

Indonesia'€™s debacle began when Muhammad Rian Ardianto-Rosyita Eka Putri Sari were defeated by Huang Kaixiang-Chen Qingchen 21-14, 17-21, 21-17, according to tournamentsoftware.com.

Jonatan Christie, who currently tops the world junior rankings, was dismantled by Shi Yuqi 21-19, 22-20. China completed its clean sweep through Huang Kaixiang-Zheng Siwei, who held off Muhammad Rian Ardiant-Clinton Hendrik Kudamasa'€™s resilience to round off the match with their victory at 20-22, 21-12, 21-18.

This marked back-to-back failures by young Indonesian shuttlers at the BWF junior championship finals, with the previous flop at the hands of South Korea last year.

Like their seniors, China has dominated the event by winning the crown for the ninth time. Korea has triumphed twice and Malaysia once.

'€œThe athletes have given their best performances. It was all they could do. We admit the opponents were ahead of us and displayed a better game than us. Our achievement of reaching the finals surpassed our initial expectations for the semifinals,'€ team manager Maria Francisca said in a press release.

The Indonesian team still harbors hopes for an honor when the individual championship event takes place on Saturday, in which Indonesia will pin its title hopes on Jonatan.

Meanwhile, at the Singaporean Open Super Series, Indonesia'€™s men'€™s singles player, Simon Santoso, advanced to the semifinals after defeating Korean Lee Dong-keun in the quarterfinals on Friday.

The achievement fulfilled his promise of achieving better results this year.

Against Lee, Simon once trailed 1-8 early in the first game. Only then did he crawl his way back up, evening the score at 12-12. It proved to be the turning point in the game with him wresting control throughout. A strong smash ended the game 21-18.

'€œThe opponent was gritty. He was resilient with a good counter attack,'€ Simon said.

Simon fell to the repeated tantrum like he did in the opening game when he found himself behind. With his experience, Simon overtook Lee and closed the game 21-15.

'€œWhen trailing, I lost composure in the play. I changed the rhythm by employing more refrains before attacking,'€ he said.

Simon, who has been kicked out of the national team due to a string of poor performances, looks to carry on with his winning performance that earned him a title at the Malaysian Open Grand Prix Gold earlier this month.

 '€œMy target is to break into the top 10 in the world rankings,'€ he said.

He will face a potentially tough task when he tries to tackle Du Pengyu of China in the semifinals on Saturday. Their meeting record is even at 2-2, with their last match at the Indonesian Open 2012, which resulted in an Indonesian victory.

In mixed doubles, two Indonesian pairs reached the semifinals after beating their respective opponents.

All England champions Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir brushed aside Anders Kristiansen-Julie Houmann of Denmark 21-8, 21-17 while Riky Widianto-Richi Puspita Dili secured their semifinal ticket without breaking a sweat after their Chinese opponents, Xu Chen-Ma Jin withdrew. No details were given about their
withdrawal.

Tontowi-Liliyana will face Liu Cheng-Bao Yixin of China, while Ricky-Puspita will be challenged by third seeded South Koreans Ko Sung-hyun-Kim Ha-na.

In the women'€™s doubles, Suci Rizky Andini-Tiara Rosalia Nuraidah and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari-Greysia Polii failed to march further.

Suci-Tiara lost to Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi 29-30, 21-18, 20-22.

Nitya-Greysia were involved in a tight match with China'€™s second seeded Bao Yixin-Tang Jinhua before relinquishing 20-22, 20-22.

Popular

To my horror, it’s just a movie!

RI, Australia strengthen partnership on taxing crypto assets

Pentagon chief congratulates Prabowo on being elected President