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Copenhagen turns into minefield for Indonesian shuttlers
Last to fall: Tommy Sugiarto fails to advance after being beaten by Chinaâs Long Chen in the semifinal of the WBF badminton championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Saturday
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span class="inline inline-center">Last to fall: Tommy Sugiarto fails to advance after being beaten by China's Long Chen in the semifinal of the WBF badminton championships in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Saturday. AP
In the wake of several forced withdrawals by the team's ace players, the Indonesian badminton squad faltered in its bid to emulate last year's achievement and returned home empty-handed from the BWF World Championships.
In Guangzhou last year, Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir and Hendra Setiawan-Mohammad Ahsan won the mixed doubles and men's doubles events respectively.
However, due to injury they were forced to abandon the defense at the championships, which were held from Aug. 25 to 31 in Copenhagen, Denmark.
In their absence, as well as that of men's singles player Simon Santoso (because of illness), none of the team's members managed to advance to the finals ' they all crashed on the sidelines.
The only player who came close to the finals was Tommy Sugiarto, who was ultimately beaten by Chinese nemesis Chen Long in the semifinals.
Despite the failure to win the title, Tommy, the world's number five player, was hailed by the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) as having accomplished his personal target of reaching the last four matches.
In the other four events, the players could not hold on against their opponents.
In the women's doubles, championship debutants Anggia Shitta Awanda and Della Destiara Haris stunned top seeds Bao Yixin and Jinhua Tang 21 to 14 and 21 to 18 in the second round, only to melt later against another Chinese pair, fifth seeds Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei, in the quarterfinals.
'Overall, they all performed quite well even though some of them could not meet our targets, such as Nitya Krishinda Maheswari and Greysia Polii. However, the women's doubles event showed good results thanks to Anggia and Della,' team manager Lius Pongoh said recently.
Tournament veterans Nitya and Greysia also failed in quarterfinals against Reika Kakiiwa and Miyuki Maeda of Japan.
'We had expected at least two shuttlers in the quarterfinals to secure places in the semifinals,' Lius said.
Angga Pratama and Rian Agung Saputro, who assumed the title burden in the absence of their seniors, played somewhat awry in court, bowing out to South Korea's Kim Ki-jung and Kim Sa-rang 21 to 14 and 21 to 13 in the quarterfinals.
Ricky Karanda Suwardi and Berry Anggriawan followed them out, with Lius blaming their lack of confidence.
Markus Fernaldi Gideon and Markis Kido could not survive their opponents' onslaught, either.
In mixed doubles, out of four pairs only Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto advanced to the quarterfinals where they went down to the host team's Joachim Fischer Nielsen and Christinna Pedersen 21 to 15 and 21 to 5.
In the weakest spot in Indonesian badminton, the women's singles event, Bellaetrix Manuputty and Linda Weni Fanetri exited even earlier with Bellaetrix losing to Chinese Taipei's Tzu Ying Tai in the second round and Lindaweni was outplayed by South Korea's Ji Hyun-sung in the third round.
While Indonesia was left swallowing bitter pills, regional rival and world powerhouse China still showed its domination by sweeping three of the five titles at stake: Chen Long in men's singles, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei in mixed doubles and Tian Qing and Zhao Yunlei in women's doubles.
They could have returned home with four titles if it had not been for the tournament stunner executed by Spain's Carolina Marin, who stole the women's singles laurels at the expense of the tournament's top seed, Li Xuerui. Marin became the first European winner since Camilla Martin in 1999.
South Korea, the host of the next Asian Games in September when badminton will be one of the Games' sports, still had something to cheer because of Ko Sung-hyun and Baek Choel-shin who defeated Lee Yong-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong in an all-Korean final.
The Asian Games may provide the Indonesian shuttlers a court upon which to redeem their poor results in the world championships, but it seems that Indonesia's gold prospects likely rest on the fitness of its mixed and men's doubles pairs.
