DJARUM INDONESIA OPEN – Gunawan / Bach good for main draw

To those who are not familiar with the atmosphere of the Istora Senayan Stadium, in the heart of Jakarta, the qualification draw is something to be seen. And those who are first timers and only get to play in the qualification round will no doubt have incredible memories with the unending passion from local crowds for their Indonesian compatriots – most of whom made it through to the main draw.

Some intense matches player out very early in the day, with some of the world’s top 40 shuttlers taking on Indonesian qualifiers. It didn’t go so well for Alamsyah, who was ousted by an impressive Andrew Dabeka of Canada.

Petr Koukal also had the best over young star Tommy Sugiarto 21/19 – 21/13 and the tall Czech Republic shuttler fell on the ground after his impressive victory. So did Hans Kristian Vittinghus when he beat Rumbaka 21/19 in the last game – the Dane was then to qualify for the main draw after success over Dabeka in the second match of the day, offering himself a first round with Hafiz Hashim.

Koukal on his side, had to bow to the man in form, Kuan Beng Hong, who stunned Qiu Yanbo before nailing the sympathetic Czech 21/23 – 21/17 – 21/19 in one of the longest matches of the day. Koukal was cheered for his fair play while obviously, Kuan didn’t enjoy much support and got booed out of the court, a probable sign of the arch rivalry between Indonesia and Malaysia.

One of the upsets of the day saw Anup Sridhar, who had reached the quarter finals in Singapore last week (including defeating Gade), defeated by Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in the decider which he lost 11/21.

Tony and Howard are back !

The men’s double event was one of the highlights of the day, with home hero Tony Gunawan, returning to action with his partner Howard Bach. The duo had played together in the recent Sudirman Cup where they had been undefeated but their only other outing this year was the first round of the All England where they were stunned by Japan’s Ikeda and Sakamoto. Today the duo gave some joy to the crowd who clearly haven’t forgotten their champion, who has lived in the USA for more than 5 years now.

With one of the toughest draws in the qualification, Bach and Gunawan had to play their best to beat Thailand’s Prapakamol and Anugritayawon 24/26 – 21/18 – 21/17 before beating another tough pair, Gan and Tan of Malaysia, this time in straight games, 21/19 – 21/15, with Howard Bach hitting the shuttles particularly hard while Gunawan was his usual efficient self at the net.

The 2005 World Champions will now take on Kumar and Thomas in the first round of the main draw on Wednesday, after the Indians were promoted to the main draw. They replaced Boe and Mogensen. This leaves the bottom of the draw quite open with the winner who may have to face Candra Wijaya’s little brother, Rendra, who now partners Anggun Nugroho.

Wednesday’s main draw looks very appealing, with only a few names missing from the original draw. Bao Chunlai, men’s champion last week will not start – he was replaced by his compatriot Lu Yi – some good news for Jan Jorgensen who was supposed to face the tall Chinese in the first round.

Nanna Brosolat had to go back home with a foot inflammation and was replaced in the main draw by Maja Tvrdy from Slovenia, facing Lu Lan in the first round.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 11:33 AM. Filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0