INDONESIA OPEN 2016 Day 2 – Korean mixed suffers almost clean sweep

Four of Korea’s best mixed doubles pairs started in the 2016 Indonesia Open main draw but only one passed to the second round.

By Naomi Indartiningrum, Badzine Correspondent live in Jakarta.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Korea had three mixed doubles pairs all made up of top ten doubles players but only the pair who are themselves in the mixed top ten made it three to fight another day in Jakarta.

First up, it was Yoo Yeon Seong / Jang Ye Na (pictured above), starting in the morning against Jacco Arends / Selena Piek of the Netherlands.  Yoo/Jang failed to get the points as they were under a lot of pressure from the Dutch pair.  Arends/Piek kept pushing them until the last point and won 21-19, 21-13.

In the next match, Kim Gi Jung and Shin Seung Chan followed their team-mates’ result.  Kim/Shin lost to Japan’s Kenta Kazuno / Ayane Kurihara after battling until the third game.  It was very though match for both of pairs because they were in the same level of play.

“Because today’s match is just mixed doubles, I take this as a warm-up and I don’t think we were ready to face the hall condition.  It made us uncomfortable.  At the end of the match, my partner and I lost our focus and made many mistakes,” said Kim Gi Jung.

Similarly, Lee Yong Dae / Lee So Hee failed to get their ticket to the second round, falling to Liu Cheng / Bao Yixin, a pair that reached the final on their last visit to Jakarta.  They were part of an opposite pattern as China lost only one pair and saw five – including Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong (pictured), who beat All England champions Jordan/Susanto – advance to the last sixteen.

On the other hand, Ko Sung Hyun / Kim Ha Na didn’t want to follow their team-mates’ example.  Facing home representatives Edi Subaktiar / Gloria Emmanuelle Widjaja, the world #2 led from the first game and finished it 21-18, 21-15.

“Before the start of our match, our condition wasn’t very good but fortunately we’ve already met our rivals several times so it’s just about mindset.  Our mindset was to play well and win the match,” said Ko Sung Hyun.

“My other team-mates are now focussed on their level doubles while Kim Ha Na and I are focus on mixed doubles only so I don’t think too seriously about those results.  We just focus and take this as preparation for the Olympics,” added Ko.

“Right now, mixed doubles quality is about the same from country to country.  The difference is just each pair’s own condition in each tournament,” said Korean mixed doubles coach Ra Kyung Min (pictured below), the former Olympic silver medallist in the discipline.

“These next two months will be very important for our Korean National Team to prepare for the Olympics so they can get best result in Rio in August.  In these summer Olympics, our target is gold medals and I hope Ko Sung Hyun / Kim Ha Na can get those medals.”

All England champions fall again

After winning this year’s All England, Praveen Jordan / Debby Susanto (pictured) have not been able to show their best performance. They had a big target for this Indonesia Open, but in the first round on Tuesday.  The Indonesians were behind from the beginning of their match against China’s Lu Kai / Huang Yaqiong. The Indonesians made many mistakes while Lu/Huang played really well offensively and took the victory 21-15, 21-10.

“We were under a lot of pressure and couldn’t move on from that condition. We were trapped in their strategy,” said Jordan.

“Lu Kai is very tall and he was able to take every shuttle we sent high while I was making many mistakes in the beginning of the match,” Susanto added.

Even with this disappointment, Indonesia still has several pairs through to the next round, which will take place on Thursday.  Ahmad/Natsir, Alexander/Oktaviani, Prasetya/Saufika and Widianto/Dilli all advanced.

Click here for complete Tuesday results