DJARUM Indonesia Open - Lin Dan back in action

With the Aviva Singapore Open just finished, most of the shuttlers in the Sealion city were taking the short flight to Jakarta, for the second leg of this BWF World Super Series Asian tour. The chill of the Singapore Indoor stadium will be quickly forgotten once they feel the heat of what is known as the “home of badminton” - the Isatora Senayan stadium.

The men’s single event, more than any other, should feature some exciting matches from the very beginning. The qualification round itself sees world’s top shuttlers try to book their berth in the main draw, with Anup Sridhar, quarter finalist in Singapore and Lu Yi or Gong Weije as seeded players.

But the main draw of course looks even more promising, with Lin Dan returning to action after skipping the Singapore leg last week. Seeded number 3, Lin is set to meet Indonesia’s Andre’s Kurniawan, whose best run in a tournament was in this very same Indonesia Open a few years ago. Lin Dan will have to watch out and try to avoid slow starts as he sometimes does. The Olympic champion is set for a quarter final confrontation with his younger compatriot Chen Jin before perhaps the most ideal semi final against Lee Chong Wei.

The Malaysian however has hinted last week that he was not in a perfect shape nor in an absolute quest for gold, but more in a preparation mood for the upcoming world championships – he was ousted by Vietnam’s Nguyen in the second round in Singapore. Lee will face German’s Mark Zwiebler in the first round but should prepare for a tough fight after that : Simon Santoso, but also Park Sung Hwan and Bao Chunlai are in the same quarter and the latter two will meet for a deadly first round on Wednesday.

In the lower part of the draw, Peter Gade is set for an Indonesian run in with Taufik Hidayat and Sony Dwi Kuncoro in his half of the draw. Gade, whose form has been great but who failed to progress in Singapore, will be eying up a better outcome in Jakarta, with India’s Kashyap as a first round opponent. Everyone is looking forward his quarter final clash against the former Olympic champion. Hidayat had stayed home as well last week to launch a new apparel line and will be hoping for a 7^th title on home soil. Taufik however could be meeting Ponsana, last Sunday’s runner up – in an early second round clash.

Zhou Mi out for second straight victory.

Once again top seed, the Hong Kong shuttler will be aiming at a second straight win after her success in Singapore. This time, she may cross swords with Xie Xingfang earlier on as the draw sees them in the same quarter – they could play a rematch of Sunday’s final as early as Friday evening. That is, if Xie passes a first tough test with Maria Kristin Yulianti.

Zhou Mi will have to defeat a qualifier first, then probably Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia before that. Wang Yihan, second seed for this event will look at amending her poor outing last week but has Singapore’s quarter finalist Judith Meulendijks as a first round opponent. Later, she could play Lu Lan or Zhu Lin who are to meet in the second round. Other possible matches to look out for from Wednesday are : Nehwal Vs Nedelcheva and Ponsana Vs Wang Lin.

One more try for Kido/Setiawan

Markis Diko and Hendra Setiawan will be playing at home in a major event for the first time since their Olympic title and as they were the only Indonesian Gold medalists in Beijing, will certainly get the support of the home crowd. After a bitter loss in the final on Sunday, the duo still stand as firm favourites and will meet again with German’s Kindervater and Fuchs, who had been very close to beating the top seeds last week in Singapore.

In the absence of Paaske and Rasmussen – back to Denmark after their semi final birth in Singapore – Denmark’s chances will once again rely on Boe and Mogensen who are featured in the lowest spot of the draw. The Danes may have smiled when they saw that their first opponents were qualifiers, yet on a second look, they might realize that coming from this side of the qualification draws are no less than 2005 world champions, Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach or Malaysia’s Ong and Tan who fared well in Singapore. And as if this wasn’t enough for a starter, the Danes might face China’s Cai and Fu in the last eight, if the Chinese are back after withdrawing from last week’s event.

The women’s doubles promises some interesting action this week with the Olympic champions also set to make their return to competition. Du and Yu maybe only seeded 5^th but are still be regarded as favourites with a first round against Korea’s Jang and Kim. Chin and Wong of Malaysia are top seeds and look at a quarter final against Lee and Lee of Korea, unless either Pan/Tian or last week’s Juhl and Frier have their word to say about it – oddly enough, the two pairs will meet again, this time in the first round.

Cheng and Zhao and last weekend’s winners Zhang and Zhao are in the exact same position as last week’s draw, which means the youngsters will have a chance to avenge their Singaporean fate in the quarters again.

Nova Widianto and Lyliana Natsir will top the mixed double draw with some pressure on their shoulders to do well on home soil. They were drawn to play Sunday’s winners Zheng Bo and Ma Jin in the quarter finals while the clash of the first round should see Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg take on China’s Xie and Zhang.

Another good first match will be Poland’s in form Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk taking on He and Yu, two Beijing Olympic heroes who will make their return to court after skipping last week’s tournament.

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