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Alarmed PBSI plans overhaul on singles players
Breezing through: Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia makes a return in his match against Brice Leverdez of France on Thursday
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Breezing through: Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia makes a return in his match against Brice Leverdez of France on Thursday. The worldâs number one breezed to a 21-4, 21-16 win. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama) (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
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span class="inline inline-none">Breezing through: Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia makes a return in his match against Brice Leverdez of France on Thursday. The world's number one breezed to a 21-4, 21-16 win. (JP/Wendra Ajistyatama)
The early exit of singles players from the Indonesia Open tournament has prompted the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) to undertake an emergency evaluation in an attempt to nix a similar shambles in the future.
As of Thursday, all local women's singles players had fallen at the wayside, while a few of the men's singles, including Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo who was scheduled to face Dane's Hans-Kristian Vittinghus later in the evening, have survived the foreigners' onslaught.
Sony Dwi Kuncoro, Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka, Tommy Sugiarto and Alamsyah Yunus lost in the first round on Wednesday against Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, Chen Long of China, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark and Sho Sasaki of Japan respectively.
Simon Santoso had marched on before crashing to Hong Kong's Hu Yun 21-19, 17-21, 21-10 in the second round on Thursday.
'I have high expectations for Tommy [Sugiarto] after seeing his performance against Lee Chong Wei in the Japan Open. However, after seeing his performance last night, it looked like he had lost his fighting spirit,' said PBSI head of development and achievement Rexy Mainaky on Thursday.
At the Japan Open earlier this month, Tommy lost for 11th time in as many matches against world number one Chong Wei of Malaysia, but the fact that Tommy managed to force him to rubber game was a glimmer of hope.
However, against Viktor Axelsen of Denmark on Wednesday, Tommy lost in a 21-18, 13-21, 21-12 defeat.
Rexy hoped Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo would be able to carry on in the tournament.
Wisnu, currently sits at 133 in the BWF world rankings and in this competition has defeated players who rank far above him including Vladimir Malkov (45th) from Russia, Sourabh Varma (38th) from India and Rajiv Ouseph (24th) from England.
'Wisnu told me that he was disappointed because we did not pick him for the Thomas Cup, so I challenged him to advance to the final round of the Indonesia Open. So far he has defeated good players,' said Rexy.
Similarly, national training camp sub division head Ricky Subagja also expressed his disappointment at the singles shuttlers.
'I'm disappointed with Tommy. It looks like he's losing his spirit to win. Hayom has a strong technique and good potential but he has not shown himself to be outstanding,' Ricky said.
'Bella [Bellaetrix Manuputty] performed quite well in the first game [against Thailand's Busanan Ongbumrungpan]. I give her credit for that. It showed that she is actually able to put up a good fight,' Ricky said.
Of six women's singles players only Adrianti Firdasari made it to the second round even though she finally bowed out to China's Li Xuerui 12-21, 22-20.
'Linda will also be evaluated further. I will ask her to set her own target. She is now 26th in the world; can she boost the rank to top 10?' Ricky said.
PBSI is currently in talks with singles coach Hendry Saputra, a coach at Tangkas Specs badminton club, Jakarta, and badminton legend Hendrawan, who is currently coaching Malaysia's second-seed national team, for them to coach for the PBSI.
'With Hendry Saputra we will develop a new training system. We will start from scratch. Our target is [wins at] the Thomas and Uber Cup 2016,' said Rexy.(gda)
