TUC 2010 Quarterfinals – Indonesia and China win Asian “derbies”

By Jan Lin, Ooi Ee Lyn and Selina Ng, reporting live from Kuala Lumpur. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Regional games are greeted with great fanfare in Asia, particularly the biennial Southeast Asian (SEA) and the East Asian Games, held once every four years. In these games, team events in badminton are a comparable “mock” version of the Thomas and Uber Cups.

Less than 6 months ago, at the 2009 SEA Game in Laos, Malaysia had stolen the women’s team crown from Indonesia with a 3-1 victory, while the Chinese men brushed aside the Korean men 3-1 at the 2009 East Asian Games in Hong Kong to retain their crown.

This time in Kuala Lumpur, Indonesia’s second-ranked singles player, world number 24 Adriyanti Firdasari, was determined to avenge her SEA Games team final defeat to world number 22 Wong Mew Choo (pictured top left). In an immaculate display, Adriyanti was unstoppable in her mission to topple local darling Wong Mew Choo 21-9, 21-16.

“Sorry, I lost!” Mew Choo said after her defeat. “I think today I’m feeling very tense because I wanted to play well. My opponent was in full control of me. I kept on trying to find a way out but I couldn’t. I tried to keep up and fought back without giving up, but in the end I didn’t make it. She played very well and is an attacking player. She attacked a lot today.  I tried to cover but she attacked again.”

With momentum set for victory, Indonesia’s 5-month-old partnership of Greysia Polii / Meiliana Jauhari (pictured right) took 53 minutes to dissect Malaysia’s world number 4 pair of Chin Eei Hui / Wong Pei Tty (pictured left) in scores of 26-24, 21-18.  It was a battle of the reigning national doubles champions of both countries. 

“We played too defensively and this gave our opponents many chances to attack. When we were leading, we were too eager to get points. But they played well and were more consistent and patient compared to us. There was pressure on us but that is not a factor that caused our loss,” said Pei Tty.

Indonesia’s 23-year-old Polii gave her two cents: “We were confident in our game and we just enjoyed it. We played against them before in the All England and this is not their best performance. Both sides were pressured during the game, so whoever could control the pressure won. We are well prepared for whoever we’ll be meeting in the semi-finals.”

At 2-0 up, the tie was clearly in favour of Indonesia and Malaysia would have needed a miracle to get back into the tie. Even so, Indonesia’s 2008 Olympic bronze medallist, Maria Kristin Yulianti, did have to overcome a rollercoaster first set but she made no mistake in the second to beat Tee Jing Yi 21-19, 21-16.

“I definitely played better than yesterday,” 19-year-old  Jing Yi revealed.  “Maria was not as fast as she used to be, but I’m satisfied with my own game today. There wasn’t any pressure on me because I know that I’m not as good as her. So, I just went in to play my game.”

Malaysia’s head coach Rashid Sidek added: “Jing Yi’s game was good, she was able to play her game but her standard is still not the same as the top players. If Julia and Lydia were here I’m sure we could have given a better fight.”

“On the whole, we are not very satisfied with the team’s performance. It is a little disappointing because we expected Mew Choo to win a point for us. But her game was read by her opponent today. She has to win because it is very tough for Jing Yi to win. Our plan did not work out but our future will be better. In two years time, we’ll have younger players and hopefully we can give a challenge,” Rashid concluded.

The Indonesian ladies will play the winner of China and India in the semi-final, while Japan, who defeated Denmark 3-1 in the other quarter-final will play the winner of Russia and Korea.

2010 Thomas Cup “reruns”

Unlike the Indonesia ladies, the Korean men, who played bridesmaid to China at the less prestigious East Asian Games last November, failed to turn the tables around against their regional foe.

In fact, the two teams just exchanged blows less than 24 hours ago in the round robin and it has come as a surprise to both teams that a rendezvous has come so quickly.

China’s head coach Li Yongbo had given a tongue-in-cheek remark before the draws were released last night when asked of the possibility of a Korea-China quarter-final, Li said: “We don’t really see such situations in other sports, but who knows, maybe badminton’s the odd one out.”

Korea were defeated 1-4 in the round robin, and the Chinese proved to be a rock solid nut to crack as they won the quarter-final “rerun” without dropping a single set.

Park Sung Hwan, who had on two occasions defeated Lin Dan in Kuala Lumpur, could not find the favour he had on this soil to defeat the Chinese ace. As the leading man of his team, Park soon found his 16-21, 15-21 defeat mimicked by his compatriots.

China’s Cai Yun / Fu Haifeng (pictured right) took just 30 minutes to dismiss Korea’s scratch pair Jung Jae Sung / Shin Baek Cheol 21-11, 21-16 and Chen Jin then dutifully wrapped up the tie with a 21-15, 21-12 victory over Shon Wan Ho.

Lin Dan said: “Park was following me rather closely but I didn’t give him any chance. I think we both played better than yesterday. All four top countries are in the same half of the draw. It’s quite fun! And now that we are already in the semi-finals, we’ll go all out no matter who’s in our way.”

In another 2010 Thomas Cup “rerun” this afternoon, Indonesia, who had beaten India 4-1 in the round robin just 48 hours ago saw no change in their fates. India, who had to travel without their injured top men’s singles player Chetan Anand, were shown the exit with a 3-0 defeat.

Though Indonesia’s second singles Sony Dwi Kuncoro sat out to nurse his injury, the Indonesia-India rerun was so similar that India’s Kashyap Parupalli once again started the tie by stretching Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat to three games (21-12, 10-21, 21-17).

Hendra Setiawan / Markis Kido then made it 2-0 by defeating Sanave Thomas / Akshay Dewalkar in a straightforward 21-16, 21-17 match before Simon Santoso sealed it off in two (21-8, 21-10) to take Indonesia a step closer to their 14th Thomas Cup title.