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Hendrawan optimistic of tough competition
July 25, 2001 - Source : IBF
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On the other hand, Hendrawan’s compatriot Sigit Budiarto, Malaysia and Japanmen’s doubles champion, had a different opinion and expressed his disappointment that he would miss a lot of interesting matches because of those withdrawal.
The US$ 170.000 event, staged at the Bung Karno Stadium, Senayan, Jakarta will go ahead without many of badminton’s best players such as Peter Gade (Denmark), Roslin Hashim (Malaysia), Chen Hong, Ji Xinpeng, Xia Xuanze (China) and Indonesian Taufik Hidayat in the men’s singles. The men’s doubles will be held without the likes of Jens Eriksen/Jesper Larsen, Michael Sogaard/Jim Laugesen (Denmark), Kim Dong Moon/Ha Tae Kwon (Korea), Zhang Jun/Zhang Wei (China), Lee Wan Wah/Choong Tan Fook (Malaysia), and Pramote Teerawiwatana/Tesana Panvisvas (Thailand).
Camilla Martin (Denmark), and Chinese girls Gong Ruina, Zhou Mi, Gong Zhichao, Dai Yun, Gao Ling, Huang Sui, Zhang Jiewen, and Wei Yili will be missing from the women’s disciplines.
But Hendrawan said the competition would still be sharp because the quality of those players who had attended was still high. Besides that, the world champion feels that under the new scoring system (best of 5 games to 7 points), second tier players have a possibility of winning the match. He singled out last week’s Malaysiawhere seeded players Chen Hong, Pullela Gopichand, Roslin Hashim, Xia Xuanze, and himself were defeated.
“Anything could happen on court with thte new system. I found myself in a hard match with it. It wouldn’t be surprising if a second layer player beats a higher seeded opponent,” said the 29—year—old.
Hendrawan will meet Bjoern Joppien of Germany in the first round on Wednesday.
Rasmus Wengberg of Sweden shared a similar opinion. Wengberg thought many top-class players opted not to attend this edition of the Indonesia choosing instead to prepare for the Brunei World Grand Prix Finals in early August. But the Indonesiais still a high quality tournament — especially in men’s singles — because of the strength of talent in the host nation.
“A lot of players have equal quality today. The absence of 10 players is not influential to the tournament because 25 to 30 players who have attended have similar capability to be champion,” said Wengberg. He will face Indonesian Budi Santoso on Wednesday.
Some players, including the world champion, think they will need three or four more tournaments to adapt their style to the new scoring system.
In constrast to Hendrawan, Sigit Budiarto said he’s a little bit disappointed with the withdrawal of some of his colleagues. “The withdrawals make the matches not as interesting to me as they should be in spite of my increased chance to win the title. I would be more satisfied if I could win by beating strong opponents,” said the 25-year-old.
Meanwhile, PBSI Secretary General Leo Wiranata reassured the press that the Indonesiais still a high level tournament because all of Indonesia’s top players attend it. He also said, that no badminton tournament in the world could always have all of top players playing in it. “It is normal I think. Sometimes the quality of the tournament is so high, sometimes it decreased a little bit,” he said.
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Other news:
» Now Gopichand pulls out of Malaysian Open
» Xia, Martin have top billing at 2002 Malaysia Open
» Hafiz to take three-week break
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