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ENTERTAINMENT IN THE MIXED DOUBLES
September, 19 2000
The afternoon matches of the badminton competition in Sydney featured many entertaining matches and also showed what the Olympics can offer to the young players
who''ve had new experiences at the biggest sporting event in the world.
Bambang Suprianto and Zelin Resiana were the ones who entertained the crowds in their match against Michael Sogaard/Rikke Olsen, which was
full of long rallies and tricky shots in front of the net. Suprianto and Resiana tried to avenge their loss at the 1999 Indonesia but to no avail. They lost 10-15, 11-15.
In the end of the game, Suprianto
seemed to have a uncertain air and made mistakes with his control on the back line. At 10-9 for Suprianto and Resiana, they lost two points easily through Suprianto''s misjudgement.
"I felt a little bit
disappointed because since the beginning, we scored points after some very hard struggles, one by one, and never relying on a judgement. For a very tight game like this you can''t do that, hoping that the judgement is
right," Resiana said. On the other hand, Suprianto said that he lost his steam. "I was a little bit tired after all. It was hard to be consistent in such conditions."
More entertainment in the
afternoon came in the match between the dark horse Dutch pair, Chris Bruil and Erica van den Heuvel and Great Britain''s Simon Archer and Jo Goode in the last match. Bruil and van den Heuvel tried to repeat their
success at the European Championship when they beat Archer and Goode, but it just didn''t happen. "Joanne was playing much better than that time," Bruil said. But Jo had her own opinion: "I was just
making some good serves so we had chance to attack them," she said.
Bruil admitted he found it heavy going: "They kept it low so it was hard for me to attack. Once I lifted the shuttle they attacked
very sharply." Van Den Heuvel added: "It startled me every time they attacked just right to me!" The young players who were on show at the Olympics for the first time, had a shaky experience. For the top
seed Taufik Hidayat, who played rubber sets against Japan''s Hidetaka Yamada, the experience is always be the same in every tournament. "I''ve always played like that in the first match in every tournament. I need
to adjust myself with the court. It was a little bit on purpose that I played three games to get to know the court better." he said. He won the match over Yamada by 15-5, 14-17, 15-8.
Wong Choong Hann also
experienced the same feeling. "It is my first Olympics and I felt a little bit shaky after all. But from now on I think it should be OK," Wong said. He won over Finland''s, Jyri Aalto. Speaking of his Olympic
debut, Ji Xinpeng admitted that it was difficult to overcome the nerves. He was stretched by the young Hong Kong player, Ng Wei, 7-15, 15-4, 15-11.
The young star from India, Pulella Gopichand also had to play
for three sets against the Ukrainian, Vladislav Druzchenko. He won by 7-15, 15-4, 15-11.
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