Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Courtesy of PBSI)Indonesian hopeful Gregoria Mariska Tunjung is on a personal mission as she will challenge top-seed Chen Yufei of China in the women’s singles second round of the 2019 Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan, China, on Thursday
Gregoria Mariska Tunjung (Courtesy of PBSI)
Indonesian hopeful Gregoria Mariska Tunjung is on a personal mission as she will challenge top-seed Chen Yufei of China in the women’s singles second round of the 2019 Badminton Asia Championships in Wuhan, China, on Thursday.
World number 16 Gregoria plans to get even with Chen, who defeated her in their previous encounter in last year’s World Championships.
In the first round on Wednesday, Gregoria outclassed qualifier Cheung Ying Mei of Hong Kong 21-18, 21-16, while Chen thrashed Vietnam’s Thi Trang Vu 21-8, 21-12 to secure her spot in the next round.
“I definitely want my revenge, because I lost to her in our last meet-up — I got into her solid setup in the second game.
“I want to win [tomorrow], but what I’m thinking about now is to get things right in my game plan. My personal target is to defeat her,” said Gregoria, as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org.
Gregoria has learned that Chen is known as a patient player.
“She doesn’t have a killer trick, but she’s very patient and her timing to fight back is really good. I have to be able to match those virtues, stay patient and not get carried away,” she added.
Regarding Wednesday’s performance, Gregoria was not satisfied with her approach, despite winning. “In the first game, [Cheung] earned quite a few points from my mistakes. In the beginning of second game, I progressed before slumping — I was still inconsistent.”
Choirunissa also advanced to the next round after beating Malaysia’s Lee Ying Ying. In the second round, Choirunissa is to take on world number six Sindhu V. Pusarla.
In the meantime, Fitriani and Ruselli Hartawan were stopped by Malaysia’s Soniia Cheah and South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun, respectively, in the first round.
In men’s doubles, four pairs are off to the next round. They are Wahyu Nayaka and Ade Yusuf Santoso, Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto as well as Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo.
The favorite among the country’s singles shuttlers on the men’s side, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting and Jonatan Christie, failed to continue their Wuhan journey.
Sixth-seed Anthony lost to unseeded Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in the first round, while eighth-seed Jonatan was defeated by Japan’s Kenta Nishimoto.
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