DJARUM INDONESIA OPEN – There’s something about Maria

For some, things felt just like last week with easy wins to go forward. For others, it’s a whole new story. Pi Hongyan, unfortunately, was not lucky enough to see things changing for the best. After her first round defeat in Singapore, the 30 year old Sichuan born French singles player was ousted by 19-year old Maria Febe Kusumastuti.

In an uneven match, the French fifth seed couldn’t find the resources to edge out the local girl who was hugely supported by the noisy and joyful crowd. The key of the match may have been the first game, lost closely by the Pi 22/24. In the second game, Pi took things back in control and gave a lesson of badminton to her younger opponent, while Maria was letting go towards the end to save energy for the last game. This proved a useful tactic as the Indonesian was on top of her game in the third and last game which she won 21/15.

“Hongyan is currently in doubt with her game, she sometimes hesitates for the right strokes and takes some poor decisions on key rallies. We’ll need a little bit of time. We wondered whether we should go home and practice, but Hongyan is a great champion and a fighter and decided not to give up, so we’ll go to Malaysia Grand Prix after all” said her coach, Fabrice Vallet.

‘I was very well prepared for this tournament’, said a very relaxed Kusumastuti after the match. ‘I watched videos of Pi to analyze her game so I knew what I was in for today. Since I don’t participate in many Super Series, it’s very important for me to perform well in order to impress my coaches. Also, since my goal is to integrate the national team, this was additional motivation for this Indonesia Open’, added the Djarum Club player.

It is the second time that Pi has lost in the first round of the Indonesia Open by a local shuttler, even though she had defeated Kusumastuti here last year.

Zhou Mi, had a very different fate to he successes of last week. A happy winner in Singapore, the Chinese born Hong Kong player gave way to Japan’s Sayaka Sato, in a thrilling three game encounter.

The young left-handed Japanese won 21/11 – 16/21 – 21/19 to scoop the new spot of the top speed. This might be good news for Xie Xingfang, who was out for another great challenge, just three days after her final in Singapore.

Facing the Olympic Bronze Medalist Maria Kristin Yulianti, Xie Xingfang had to dig deep to win in straight games – a third might have been too much of a struggle after a tough week. In spite of a boiling crowd, Yulianti had to bow to her elder opponent.

Last week’s hero Fu Mingtian didn’t match her performance and bowed easily to Zhu Lin, one of the who had missed the Aviva Singapore Open. The former world champion took it home 21/12 – 21/13. Wong Mew Choo was the other major casualty, beaten by Giant Korean Kim Moon Hi in a disappointing outing 18/21 – 17/21.

The first day of play was a long one with a lot of matches going to three games however the passionate badminton fans kept the momentum going, but for many of the players, this first day was the last. Only Peter Gade and Joachim Persson will be left in the draw for Denmark as Jan Jorgensen and Hans Kristian Vittinghus were defeated by Simon Santoso and Hafiz Hashim respectively. Santoso had to go down to the wire for a final 21/19 success over the rising star.

Both Lin Dan and Lee Chong Wei took two games to qualify for the next round, with Lin having to go over time in the second against local boy Andre Kurniawan. Lin, despite having little crowd support during the match, was met by hoards of fans wanting to touch his hand on his way out of the court.

It was a bad day for India, who lost their four shuttlers, Anand, Bhat, Kahyap and Pawar. The women of the team, Mutaktar and Nehwal made up for it by scooping their tickets for the second round.

Taufik Hidayat, returning to competition, had a rather smooth run against Andrew Smith, winning 21/10 – 21/15 and hoping for a seventh title on home ground.

The mixed double event was another field for tough battles. Out Flandi Limpele and Anastasia Russkikh – beaten by Yoo and Kim of Korea.

Same fate for Clark and Kellogg, who were defeated 16/21 – 20/22 by last week’s runners up Xie and Zhang. The English pair were once again at the center of a major confusion on court, due to a disputed line call at the end of the match. After a ten-minute delay, the crowd-supported English finally bowed down to the Chinese. No more luck for Poland’s Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk who had a tough draw against Korea’s Han and Jang.

The men’s doubles event was just as exciting, with some amazing matches from scratch. New pair of Gunawan/Yulianto edged out Malaysia’s veterans Choong and Lee, seeded eigth for the event, in a very close fight and a 16/21 – 21/18 – 21/17 final score.

Olympic champions Kido and Setiawan looked more at ease, at home, against Germans Kindervater and Fuchs, whom they had closely won against last week. On Wednesday, they made light work of the Europeans. The old continent was avenged later with last week’s heroes, Robertson and Clark, who once again beat a seeded pair Septano and Ahsan, 15/21 – 21/16 – 21/10.

Posted by Lucas Liau on 12:17 PM. Filed under Indonesia Open, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0