INDONESIA GPG 2011 – Daren shows the door to Simon

Both Simon Santoso and Sony Dwi Kuncoro were shown the exit on Wednesday in the opening day of the main draw of the Bankaltim Indonesia Open GP Gold 2011, with the former beaten by in form Liew Daren of Malaysia, while Pi Hongyan had a scare.

Article by Raphaël Sachetat. Photo (archives): Badmintonphoto

After Chen Long, Chen Jin and Jan O. Jorgensen withdrew from the competition, all odds were on Indonesias trio made up of Taufik Hidayat, Sony Dwi Kuncoro and Simon Santoso to win this Grand Prix Gold tournament. Taufik showed little inspiration when he beat Malaysia’s Khrishnan in three games but it was even worse for both his compatriots. Sony was shown the exit by Chan Kwong Beng while Simon Santoso – seen as Indonesia’s future number one after Hidayat retires – did no better: the Indonesian was beaten in straight games by Malaysia’s Liew Daren 21-17, 21-15.

Liew, who had pushed Taufik in a long three-game match in the Djarum Indonesia Open this year and then beaten Lee Hyun Il in Taipei, advanced to the second round of the men’s singles draw, where he will meet up with another Malaysian: Misbun Ramdan who is no other than Misbun Sidek’s son. Liew beat the latter in the second round of the Vietnam Open this year.

There were no other upsets amongst the seeds in this category. Wang Zhengming – now sole representative for China – is to play Malaysia’s Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, probably heading for a quarter-final clash with Taufik on Friday.

Pi survives 5 match points

In the women’s singles, France’s Pi Hongyan survived a big scare when she erased 5 match points against local youngster Asmarani. Pi had to catch back from 17-20 in the decider for a final win 21-17, 24-26, 24-22. The Chinese-born French shuttler will be eager to gain some important points this week after she was away for more than 5 months this year because of her injury and after 2 first round defeats in China and Japan against some of the best Chinese. She will take on Japanese youngster Okuhara, who edged Maria Febe Kusumastuti in an unexpected easy stroll.

All results HERE