Singapore doubles pairs humble seeded shuttlers

Story by Jan Lin/Red Sports. Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports.

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, June 10, 2009 – A total of 10 seeded shuttlers fell by the wayside in the first round of the 2009 Singapore Badminton Open with the hosts felling three of them.

After knocking out the 7th seed of the women's singles event earlier in the day, the Singapore shuttlers continued their assault in the evening by toppling two more seeds in the doubles events.

The hosts saw success right from the start of the second day when the newly-assembled mixed doubles combination of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Yao Lei started the day positively for the republic by polishing off Korea's senior-junior combination of Han Sang Hoon and Jang Ye Na in straight sets scores of 23-21, 21-18.

The talented China-born Yao Lei, who had won the 2008 World Junior doubles champion with Fu Mingtian, then teamed up with Indonesia-born Shinta Mulia Sari in the evening to depose 6th-seeded Japanese doubles queens Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna in two classy games of 21-15.

"We didn't expect them to win," admitted Singapore's doubles coach, Eng Hian, a former top men's doubles player in Indonesia. "I thought the Japanese girls were of a much higher level but our girls played well today – they stuck with our strategy and made very few unforced errors."

Shinta and Yao Lei will have an equally uphill task against Indonesia's Greysia Polii and Nitya Krishinda Maheswari in the round of 16. Singapore will also be represented by Mok Jing Qiong and Samantha Neo in the second round as they were given a walkover by compatriots Vanessa Neo and Liu Fan.

Shinta's elder brothers Hendra Wijaya and Hendri Kurniawan Saputra had earlier joined hands to force Malaysia's 8th-seeded pair of Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook to swallow a bitter pill in Singapore as they took 37 minutes to send them home in scores of 21-9, 17-21, 21-10.

"We kept on attacking. We had nothing to lose," said the 28-year-old Hendri Kurniawan in an assuring manner. Lee and Choong had crossed swords with Wijaya and Saputra in the final of the 2009 India Open in March where the Singaporeans were defeated in straight games.

"We wanted to avenge for that defeat in India," Hendri confessed, "so this is a memorable victory because I remember telling a reporter after the final that we will beat them in Singapore - and we did. Playing at home definitely boosts our confidence with the crowd cheering for us."

Elaborating on the match strategy, Hendri said: "We've played them a few times and we know we needed to attack. We played an offensive game in the first set, but fell into a defensive mode in the second game so we had to regain an offensive position in the tiebreaker in order to win."

Together with his two siblings, Hendra and Shinta, Hendri had arrived in Singapore in 2004 and earned permanent resident status the year after.

"I was confident of winning," he continued, "and after winning this match, I'm even more confident to advance further in the tournament."

Hendra chipped in his two cents worth: "I think we have benefited a lot from our doubles coach (Eng Hian), he is experienced and very patient."

Eng Hian, the 2004 Olympic men's doubles bronze medalist, moved to Singapore from Jakarta a year ago to be both a player and coach.

"This victory over the Malaysians was expected as we have prepared well for this," revealed Eng Hian. "Hendra and Hendri are better in their stamina and energy, they are younger and faster. Technical-wise, both pairs are similar though the Malaysians are a lot more experienced."

Wijaya and Saputra are currently ranked 53rd in the world and waiting for them in the round of 16 is another retired Malaysian pair, Chew Choon Eng and Chan Chong Ming, currently ranked 11th in the world. The Singaporeans were victorious in their last meeting at the 2009 India Open semi-final.

"On the whole, I'm quite happy with the performance of the players in this tournament. For the men's doubles, the next round is just as tough but my expectation for them is to reach the quarter-final. For the women's doubles, we will just take one match at a time," said Eng Hian.

When asked about his coaching experience in Singapore after a year, Eng Hian shared, "It has been quite challenging for me as my task is to make the Singaporeans world-class players. They are all progressing well, in accordance to the plan. We have yet to see the results though."

N.B. The event is also known as the Aviva Open Singapore

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