INDONESIA OPEN 2018 R16 – Ratchanok not distracted by home support

Getting a lot of support from Indonesian fans, Gregoria Mariska was not easy to beat for 4th-seeded Ratchanok from Thailand.

Story: Sulistianing Ambarwati, Badzine Correspondent live in Jakarta
Photos: Yves Lacroix / Badmintonphoto (live)

At the beginning of her 2nd round match, world #33^rd  and reigning World Junior Champion Gregoria Mariska played to a tight score with her idol, Ratchanok Intanon but that didn’t last long.  Intanon, who herself had 3 World Junior titles and was actually still eligible for junior events when she became the actual World Champion in 2013, began to leave the Indonesian behind when many mistakes crept into the latter’s game and she ended up scoring only 11 points in the opener.

“We had a very good match,” said the youngest ever singles World Champion.  “Gregoria has been getting better since the last time, because I think she has more experience than before.  In the first game, her defence was quite good.”

In the second game, Gregoria tried to play better by playing epic netting in the beginning.  On a net return from Intanon that did not make it back across, Gregoria led 11-9 at the interval. The Indonesian fans became more energetic, shouting to encourage the home nation’s last representative in women’s singles.  When Intanon’s return landed out of the court the second game belonged to Gregoria 21-17.

The score remained tight in the last game. Both players made a lot of mistakes in the beginning of the game, but Intanon was able to defend the Indonesian’s attacks and she moved out to a comfortable lead.  At 19-14, the 23-year-old favourite made a successful line call challenge to bring up match points and quickly ended it.

“For the next round I just need to perform my best.  I do not expect to be the champion of this tournament, but I just do my best step by step,” said Ratchanok Intanon.

A Quarterfinal Ticket for Tontowi/Liliyana

Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, mixed doubles top seeds, played very well from their first game against Yugo Kobayashi and Misaki Matsutomo.  The 2016 Olympic medallists maintained the lead and did not give a chance for their opponents to develop their strategy. However, despite reaching game point at 20-16, they allowed their opponents to finally tie it up at 20-20 taking it in extra points 23-21.

“For me, in the first game we did not do our usual performance, so I honestly wasn’t satisfied with the result,” commented Liliyana Natsir after the match.

In the second game, Kobayashi and Matsutomo made another dangerous late rally but the defending champions managed to finish that off 21-19.

“We actually could have finished the game faster, but we made many mistakes, so we do hope to do better and learn from today’s match,” said Natsir.

Chow and Lee give World Champions a run

Ahmad and Natsir were not the only World Champions and Indonesia Open titleholders to struggle to finish in straight, but tight games. Chow Mei Kuan has been back with her regular partner Lee Meng Yean after a slight detour to win Commonwealth Games gold with Vivian Hoo.  Getting Chen Qinchen and Jia Yifan as their opponents, Chow and Lee tried had a great chance to pull off an upset to make up for their disappointing showing at home last week.

In the first game, the Malaysians managed to save 4 game points as Chen and Jia were actually distracted by the shouts of encouragement from Indonesian fans cheering for Indonesian shuttlers playing on the adjacent court. The Chinese pair finally took it 22-20 and won by only a slightly wider margin in the second as Chow and Lee could not maintain their level from the first game.

Jia Yifan commented that their opponents executed their strategy very well but hoped she and Chen could focus better in their next match: “We know that no one can actually control 100% of the game, but we will do our best for every step in every match.”

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