Hmm....despite the lack of presence of foreign players in this 2 disciplines, it is very unlucky for the top Indo pair of Jo Novita/Greysia Polii and the no 2 singles player Fransisca Ratnasari. They already have been drawn to meet the no 3 seed of Wong Pey Ty/Chin Ee Hui and the no 3 seed Wang Chen. Meanwhile, Firda is drawn to play another Indonesian qualifer, but, she has to meet either Li Li or Wong Mew Choo (again very unfortunate for the Malaysian) in the second round. Maria Kristin also has to play Yao Jie in the second round. I fear that they will be no Indonesian representative in the quarter-final, unless there is some upset. I think Nana is gonna lose to Wang Chen. IBF has also screwed up Nana's ranking point. She was the runner up in New Zealand Open, yet, IBF listed her as a 1/16 loser to an Australian player Eva Ratnasena. Could it be because of the similarity in surname that lead to this error by IBF? The WD match between the Indo and Malaysian pair will be a good one...and it will be hard to tell who is gonna win. The second Indo pair of Lita Nurlita/Natalia Poluakan should win their first match but is again drawn to meet the 5th seeded Helle Nielsen/Pennile Harder. They should have a chance. I will post my thoughts on the other disciplines later on.
Ok..let me continue. MEN'S DOUBLES: The match of round for Round 1/64 is definitely Flandy/Eng Hian vs Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah. Currently, the head-to-head score is 3-5 in favor of the Malaysian veteran pair, with the latest win at the Round 1/16 Malaysian Open. The top seed Candra/Sigit will have a pretty smooth sailing ride to the semi-final where they are scheduled to meet the young Korean pair of Jung/Lee. On the other hand, the second seed Luluk/Alven will face tough battles right after Round 1/32. They will meet the winner of Flandy/Eng Hian vs Choong/Lee in Round 1/16, and possibly another Malaysian pair (either Chan Choong Meng/Koo Kien Keat or Tan Bin Shen/Ong Soon Hock). Assuming they can clear the hurdles, the third seed Lars Paaske/Jonas Rasmussen or the new Asian champion Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan awaits in the semi-final. Of course, an all-Indonesian final is always on the card. I am also looking out for the performance of Hendra Gunawan/Joko Riyadi after their good outings at Hyerabad. They should clear the first two hurdles before an interesting match with another young Malaysian pair of Mohd Tazari Mohd Fairuzizuan/Lin Woon Fui awaits in Round 1/16. A victory in Round 1/16 should earn them a quarter-final match against their first-seeded senior (Candra/Sigit). MIXED DOUBLES: Similarly, the first-seed Nova Widianto/Lilyana Natsir should have a pretty easy ride to the semi-final. Interestingly, their first round match is against former top Indonesian players Bambang Suprianto/Minarti Timur. Remember that Minarti won an Olympic silver medal with Tri Kusharyanto in the Sydney Olympics 2000. Bambang himself was an accomplished single and double player. His top achievements include the World Grand Prix Final (1993), All England (1994) and Indonesia Open (1995) titles with Gunawan. Gee..I can't even imagine he's still playing competitive badminton now! In the semi-final, they will probably face the Singapore pair of Hendra Saputra Kurniawan/Li Yu Jia or the Danish pair of Carsten Mogensen/Mette Schjoldager. My second favourite pair of Sudket/Saralee face slightly tougher battles. They will probably meet Devin Lahardi/Vita Marissa (which they have just beaten last week) in Round 1/16, Anggun Nugroho/Tetty Yunita in the quarter-final before another sizzling encounter with the Korean pair of Lee Kyung Won/Lee Jae Jin awaits in the semi-final. I think the final is going to be Nova/Butet vs Sudket/Saralee.
MEN'S SINGLES: Looking at the draw, Kenneth Jonassen seems to have an easier route to the semi-final, where he is expected to face the local favourite and newly crowned world champion Taufik Hidayat. He should win against Shoji Sato (Round 1/16) and Kuan Beng Hong (Quarter-Final). Meanwhile, Taufik is drawn to meet his fellow compatriot Simon Santoso in Round 1/16 and another rematch with Boonsak Poonsana in the quarter-final (assuming Boonsak beat Roslin in the earlier round). Taufik is the overwhelming favorite to emerge from the top-half of the draw Its interesting to see that Taufik's scheduled matches are almost carbon-copy to the sequence he has in the WC. Two easy matches to warm him up in the first two rounds, a tricky tie against Simon in the Round 1/16, before the tough ties in the subsequent rounds. Boonsak in quarter-final (Round 1/16 in WC), Kenneth in semi-final (Quarter-final in WC), and possible LCW in the final (Semi-final in WC). In the other half of the draw, Lee Chong Wei is expected to meet with fellow Lees (Lee Tsuen Tseng in Round 1/16 and Lee Hyun Il in the quarter-final) Victories will earn him a possible semi-final matchup against his fellow compatriot Wong Choong Han or Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Wong should have no problem reaching the quarter-final, while Sony will have another rematch with Ng Wei in Round 1/16. Its tough to predict who will be the winner in this half of the draw. Rudi Hartono has just mentioned in Bola today that he will be interested in watching the match between Sony and LCW in the Indonesia Open (before the draw was made) and he got his wish granted! Indeed, Indonesia Open is the tournament where we will see if Sony is really back into his best. Victories against Boonsak Ponsana, Ng Wei, and Kuan Heng Hong last week will definitely boost his confidence. His possible sequences of matches in the Indonesia Open will be: a qualifier and Marleve Mainaky in the first two rounds (which should be managable for him), Ng Wei in the Round 1/16, Wong Choong Han in the Quarter-final, Lee Choong Wei in the Semi-final, and Taufik Hidayat in the Final. I hope Sony can win this title, even though I think Taufik will eventually clinch his 6th Indonesia Open title, which is a record for the tournament.
Holy crap. Did you see the draw for the Men's Doubles and the number of pairs Indonesia has? No wonder Indonesia is so great at men's doubles lol. There's so many of them training each other.
i find an interesting thing that there will be two taufik hidayat emerge in this local game hu...i hope i can watch their encounter how the umpire to introduce... akbar taufik
For the WS event, their earlier round matches don't look too good...Thus Indonesia will be very lucky if any of their player can reach the QF. My dark horse WS player : Pia ZEBADIAH (INA) As for the WD event, i have a feeling at least 1 or maybe even 2 pairs can reach the QF. After that, who knows what will happen. Polii/Novita will have a chance to redeem themselves in the QF(after the recent ABC tourney) where most likely they will play against Ogura/Shiota. It's too bad, INA WD top 2 pairs(Polii/Novita and Poluakan/Nurlita) are playing in the same half.. My dark horse WD pairs : KRISHINDA Nitya (INA) / MELATI Nadya (INA) and HA Jung Eun (KOR) / KIM Min Jung (KOR) Remember, as long as there are no China's WS or WD players, the title is up for grabs. It's OPEN hunting...
For MD, i'm looking at Candra/Sigit against Luluk/Alven in the Final. With a possibility of JR/LP getting in. My dark horse MD pair is : KIDO Markis (INA) / SETIAWAN Hendra (INA) and For XD, yes, i concur also of a possible Final between Nova/Lilyana against Sudket/Saralee. Although Lee/Lee can also get in. My dark horse XD pair is : SAPUTRA Hendry Kurniawan (SIN) / LI Yujia (SIN)
The only thing that will prevent Taufik not winning this tourney is a lackadaisical and lazy attitude. LCW, Sony, Peter, Kenneth, Boonsak will all have equal chances of reaching the Final. But barring any injury to Taufik, i'm looking at LCW against Taufik in the Final. Sony will have a chance as he will be playing in front of his home crowd, but i don't know how physically recoup he is after playing in the ABC tourney. My dark horse MS player : is one that i'm interested in following and that most if not all you guys haven't heard. He is Fauzi Adnan, a fresh, new (junior) Pelatnas player.
not all of them are from national team, many of them represent/sent by their club. usually, after they are out/dropped from national team they return to their club (still carry on with the badminton), that's why if any tournament held in indonesia, then most of them are participating, that's why so many players/pairs from indonesia in this indo open. one more thing, looking at the draw, it's very unlucky for simon santoso, have to meet taufik again if he goes through to next round, same thing happen last time in sing open.
to ctjcad : just like u...my dark horse player : Faudzi Adnan and Pia Zubaedah.......Pia Zubaedah upset Maria kristin yesterday......Maria won it 11-8, 7-11, 13-11 btw, what does ur nick stand for. ....? penasaran aja ...
I agree that Fauzi Adnan may prove to be a dark horse. I saw him play live during the past Milo Open. Though he lost in 3 sets in the final to a lu giqeng(not sure) from China, he was indeed very impressive. He ranks first in his age group for single, above Tommy Sugiarto and Achmad Rivai. Wish him the best in the upcoming Indo Open..
Pia is indeed one of the future for Indo's women singles team. I am wondering why they call her the next Mia Audina? Is it because of her age (young) or because of her body size (chubby like Mia?). I have never seen her so I don't know how she looks like. She plays XD with her brother Bona Septano as well and I thought I won the Indonesian Open Junior just recently?
Hehe, how about something of a coincidence??..Mia Audina = Pia Zebadiah...Those names alone rhyme.. I've never seen her pic also, but if she is a "legit" young, up-and-comer, then PBSI better recruit her soon and keep her at bay, not do the same thing like what happened to Mia...
Did u guy know that Bona Septano, Pia Zebadiah, and Markis Kido are brothers and sisters? Pia and Bona have won mixed doubles title not so long ago in Milo Open in Bali. They beat chinese pair in the final. Pia also reached the final in the women singles but was defeated by Wang Yihan of china. Bad mania, how could you know a lot about indonesian shuttlers? I suppose you're an indonesian.
Did u guys know that Bona Septano, Pia Zebadiah, and Markis Kido are brothers and sisters? Pia and Bona have won mixed doubles title not so long ago in Milo Open in Bali. They beat chinese pair in the final. Pia also reached the final in the women singles but was defeated by Wang Yihan of china. Bona also won the title in the men's doubles but i forgot his pair. Bad mania, how could you know a lot about indonesian shuttlers? I suppose you're an indonesian.
I think most of us know that Just wondering why they have different surnames. I have also never seen either Pia or Bona in person.
not all indonesians have family name or surname. Just like me, i dont have any family name even though my name consists of three words, none of them is my family name. sometimes we use binti or bin, just like malaysians.
PBSI has recruited her last year but as Double player , Pia refused it with reason to focuse in Single then she back to her club (Jaya Raya). She lost to Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari & Nintya Krishinda in Single selection. Nintya changed to double player replaced Pia. Why PBSI didn't change Pia to Single and Nintya to Double ?. Maybe PBSI didn't want pass their own rules. Interesting comment from Wang Yihan about Pia before MILO Junior Indonesia Open. As usual China player see & learn the opponent before the match while Pia said "just play all out and nothing to loose". Wang Yihan said that Pia is double player type, play much rally and defend. Is PBSI & WYH have same technical view about Pia ? She beat almost 2nd layer National Single Players and she lost to Maria Kristin in closed match, I'm sure she talented in Single and Double.
Pia isn't as chubby as Mia......but she has that " Mia " move.....not as good as Mia.....but she can bend her body like Mia does......her smash is pretty good too.....
but play much rally and defend can be either singles or doubles-and more singles in the modern game where doubles is very aggresive (with the odd tactical geniuses with great placement *cough* gunawan) while singles can be effectively played in a rallying style.
