Ami Afrianti

Flandy is Indonesia's Last Badminton Hope

Indonesian shuttlers were already scarce at the Korea Open Super Series, and they will be even more so over the weekend.

Alvent Yulianto Chandra and Hendra Aprida Gunawan, the third seeds in men’s doubles, were one of two Indonesian entries left as the year’s first Super Series entered the quarterfinals. Their stay on the court on Friday was brief, though, as they lost 21-14, 21-7 to Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Yoshiteru Hirobe in just 18 minutes.

That result left former national team shuttler Flandy Limpele as the last remaining Indonesian at Seoul’s Olympic Fencing Stadium.
Flandy and mixed doubles partner Cheng Wen Hsing of Taiwan reached the semifinals with a 21-18, 21-16 over fourth-seeded Songphon Anugritayawon and Kunchala Voravichitchaikul of Thailand.

Hendra said the stunning exit was partly down to Alvent falling ill.

"He's been suffering from fever since we played in the quarterfinals. I think it is because of the cold weather. It's been snowing here, and the temperature hit almost -15 degrees," Hendra told the Jakarta Globe by text message.

"We were so lucky we could win against [Songphon and Sudket Prapakamol]. I hope he will get better soon as we have to play in Malaysia next week.”

He also reserved praise for his Japanese opponents.

“They're different than any other Japanese pair, who used to count only on their power. They showed better technique during the match. They have good lobs," he said.

Flandy and Cheng’s path to the final faces a tough test in the form of unseeded Tao Jiaming and Zhang Yawen of China. The Chinese pair, which stunned hometown favorites Lee Yong Dae and Lee Hyo Jung in the first round, reached the semifinals with a 22-24, 21-14, 21-13 defeat of world champions Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark.

Reaching the last four matched Flandy’s previous best achievement in Super Series play since he resigned from the national team. His previous best was reaching the semifinals at the 2009 All England with Russian partner Anastasia Russkikh as they defeated Indonesia’s Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir in the quarterfinals.

The cosmopolitan pair went on to lose to China’s He Hanbin and Yu Yang in the semifinals.

Today’s other mixed doubles semifinal features He and Yu against Japan’s Noriyasu Hirata and Miyuki Maeda.

Friday was another bad day for seeded players as 14 of the tournament’s top players bowed out, leaving a total of 10 remaining seeds in the semifinals. The highest-seeded casualty was Hong Kong’s Zhou Mi, the No. 2 seed in women’s singles, who retired trailing 21-18, 14-9 against sixth-seeded Wang Shixian of China.

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