INDONESIA OPEN 2013 – Crowded from Day 1

The Djarum Indonesia Open Superseries Premier 2013 has begun, with the din of local supporters posing a challenge for visiting shuttlers, even on qualifying day.

By Mathilde Liliana Perada, Badzine Correspondent live in Jakarta.  Photos: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (live)

Unlike other Superseries tournaments, Djarum Indonesia Open started on Monday with qualification matches, to be followed on Tuesday and Wednesday with the first round of the main draw spread out across two days.  Although, it’s the first day, the ambience of the hall is already noisy.  Host supporters have a lot of interest in the fortunes of their athletes and in badminton generally and both had a promising start.

One Maldives runner-up in the running

Indonesian women dominated the sixteen starters in the qualifying round, however, the seven locals were joined by six Europeans, from among whom only Ireland’s Chloe Magee advanced.

One noteworthy result came early when Kaori Imabeppu, the sole representative from Japan, began her first step toward eventually qualifying by frustrating China’s youngest entrant, Macau Open champion Sun Yu, in three games.

Host junior Hanna Ramadhini (pictured), who was one of three Indonesian entries who had just made it back from a runner-up performance at the Maldives International Challenge on Sunday, gave another impressive appearance.  Hanna was able to resist her opponent from Russia, Natalia Perminova, fighting back from a game down to win 11-21, 25-23, 21-7.

“I just arrived at 1PM at the hotel and had to compete at 3,” said Hanna, who confessed that she had just been told to appear in the Indonesia Open after the final in Maldives.  She was one of two shuttlers promoted from the reserve list after the withdrawals of P. V. Sindhu and Han Li.

“When I heard about it, I was just thinking how happy I would be if I could appear in this kind of tournament,” added Ramadhini.  After beating Austria’s Simone Prutsch in straight games in her second qualification match, Hanna earned the right to face Bae Yeon Ju from Korea in the first round.

First win, then first loss for Chai/Hong

China’s new men’s doubles pairing, Chai Biao and Hong Wei began by successfully stopping teenaged host representatives Hafiz Faisal / Putra Eka Rhoma in three games.  This result was expected as the Chinese pair had won the Swiss and German Opens, their only two tournaments to date.   Chai said that having never met Hafiz/Putra before, they had to rely on their overall experience to win the match, but the Indonesian supporters put more pressure on them.

“The stadium was not as crowded as usual with Indonesia supporters, but there’s still no tournament that has a crowd like this on the first day,” said Chai Biao.

Unfortunately for the Chinese, in their second qualification match, the Japanese pair of Takeshi Kamura / Keigo Sonoda beat them out 13-21, 21-10, 21-15 to move to the first round.

In the other men’s doubles matches, three Indonesian pairs earned passage to the main draw.  The last of these was Rian Sukmawan / Rendra Wijaya, who surprisingly beat the qualification round’s top seeds.  Rian said that they had competed against Chen Hung Ling / Lu Chia Pin while still in their junior days but that this was the first time they had met on court since then.

Women’s Doubles

Reika Kakiiwa / Miyuki Maeda (pictured above) got their expected ticket to the next round after beating two host representatives.  They beat Nadya Melati/Natalia Christine easily with no significant resistance felt by the Japanese women, who are strong as usual.

On the other hand, Korea’s new pair, India Open semi-finalists Jang Ye Na / Kim So Young, found it somewhat difficult to ensure their advance to the next round. Maldives International Challenger runners-up Melati Daeva Oktaviani / Rosyita Eka Putri Sari tried hard to duplicate compatriot Ramadhini’s feat and almost beat the Koreans but they finally fell in three games.

Ririn Amelia / Anggia Shitta Awanda (pictured) were the only local women’s doubles pairs to advance, after they shut down World Championship semi-finalist Jwala Gutta’s first overseas campaign with her new partner Prajakta Sawant.

Click here for complete Day 1 results