LI NING 2009 BWF SUDIRMAN CUP - Easy for Korea
Posted by Lucas Liau News, Sudirman Cup 10:02 AM
Korea beat Indonesia 3/1 in the first semi final of the Sudirman Cup on Saturday thanks to a surprise success of Hwang Hye Youn over Olympic bronze medallist Maria Kristin. They will meet the winner of Malaysia and China who play later in the evening. How about an Olympic Game final rematch for a starter ? That’s exactly what the fans from the Guangzhou Gymnasium got for the first match of the tie between Korea and Indonesia, played on Saturday afternoon.
Nova Widianto and Lyliana Natsir taking on Lee Yong Dae and Lee Hyo Jung, in China. That sounds familiar, only this time, it was for a team event, where pressure is sometime greater. In Beijing, the Koreans got the better off their opponents. This time, the set up was ready for another big fight on the only remaining court of the beautiful hall.
The Indonesians were in fornt all the way with one or two points margin until 16/16. At that specific stage, the Koreans geared up to more aggressive mode, relying on Lee Yong Dae’s strong attacks – the Beijing hero has gained power in his attacks lately and it showed, as he led his team to a 21/18 first game win.The second game was more one sided, this time, Lee Hyo Jung taking things in control at the net. The Korean duo made it hard for Nova to attack the shuttle, only lifting to put Lyliana at the back of the court. After the break, the Koreans seemed unbeatable, while Nova and Lyliana were walking in between points with their heads deep in their shoulders hardly speaking or looking at each other – a sign they had no solution to fight the perfect Korean combination.
Lee and Lee had a bit of luck with a couple of shuttles landing on the net band and falling on the right side of the net, but they didn’t need that to make the difference and scooped Korea’s first point 21/18 – 21/15.
After an Olympic final for a starter, the main course was just as appealing with a match between two former Asian champions – Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Park Sung Hwan. The Korean took a stunning start with an impressive 21/14 victory. Sony however didn’t let this affect his morale and fought back to win the second game 21/15.
The third game looked as if Park was back in control, playing at a higher pace, playing Sony at the net, giving him no angles, leading 14/10. But the Indonesian, supported by his own small group of spectators, scored five points in a row to reach 15/15. At 17/17, a rally played in the front court saw Sony put the shuttle in the net, giving a first lead to Park.
The end of the game was a thriller, with of course, a great impact on the outcome of the final tie. Leading 19/17, Park got nervous and started playing safe while Sony was going for his chances, trying to take the attack early in the rallies. It paid off and he scored three points in a row to get his first match point. Park saved it in spite of a great dive from the Indonesian, but it was only a matter of time before Indonesia was to level up in the tie : Sony Dwi Kuncoro scored on his second match point, at his team mates delight.
Instead of trailing 0/2, the Indonesians were back in the tie with great expectations when Maria Kristin Yulianti came on court to face Korean cutie Hwang Hye Youn.
The two tiny girls played their hearts out in the first game, with impressive calm and determination. When Maria served for the win of the first game at 20/19, it seemed like she was just hitting the first shuttle of a practice session, quite relaxed, but as soon as the shuttle got in to play, all her muscles got tense, and her attention was all on the bird, hoping for a delivering point.But it was Hwang, who saved a first and later a second game point before nailing it 23/21. Once again, the second game saw Maria in control of the rallies, but taking some risks on her attacks and making errors at the wrong times. Once she caught up from 17/19 to 19/19, everyone had Park’s collapse in mind, but Hwang made sure she wouldn’t waste such a good occasion to put her team in the lead and she scored the remaining two points, 21/19.
At 2/1 up in the overall tie, it was Jung Jae Sung and Lee Young Dae’s role to end it up against scratch pair of Ahsan and Setiawan.
And very early on, a general feeling was that the Korean duo was to win this match. Amazing rallies were won most of the time by Lee and Jung, pushing forward, with some great defenses as well. Ahsan did provide the audience with some high speed attacks, but the Koreans would put even more speed in their cross court defenses, leading 11/5 after the first break. Then, they took the first game easily 21/9. The battle was much more even in the second game where Ahsan and Setiawan showed what they had showed the previous evening to get a game from Cai and Fu, but the Koreans finally came on top 21/19 before the whole Korean team jumped on court with joy.
“The fact that Kido was still not 100 % recovered made it difficult for us and we had hoped that Maria Kristin could deliver as well, we gambled and we lost,” said Jacob Rusdianto, keeping his friendly smile in spite of the defeat. “We are very sorry for the fans who came to cheer for us today as we are for the whole nation. We fought as we could. The fact that Taufik retired didn’t make any difference as Sony was there to win the points in the men’s singles. Now, it is very difficult to predict who will win this Sudirman Cup as all 5 teams are equal, even if China has an advantage of playing at home.” said the Indonesian team manager.
It was one of the best match in the competition so far. High jump smashes leading to amazing defenses, soft play at the net, hard drives, players moving around everywhere on court and fans on the edge of their seat just about the whole time that the match lasted – one hour and six minutes.
“We had some problems adjusting to each other’s game at the beginning, and didn’t really know how to distribute the roles but gradually, we realized that the most important was to show our confidence on court and we then realized that things would go better,” said a delighted Yu Yang right after the match. 
Of course, at this stage, after a little more than two hours of play, Korea’s chances looked very little small to get back and win the tie, having lost the mixed double which they clearly counted on. On top of that, Lee Yong Dae had used a lot of energy and returned in the men’s doubkes with Jung Jae Sung while Cai and Fu were fit and fresh from last night’s victory over Indonesia.
