Birdievents.com

Kudos to Muhammad Hafiz Hashim. He is the only Malaysian single player who is still competing in this tournament.  He is able to win back to back against ranked opponents.  Yesterday, Hashim won of Tommy Sugiarto from Indonesia in straight set, 21-19 21-13.  This evening he showed his caliber again by beating Kennichi Tago, a raising star from Japan, also in straight set 21-14 and 21-19.  Unfortunately, the two other Malaysian pairs could not follow his path to the semi final stage.  The Malaysian women double pair, Vivien Hoo/ Khe Woon lost to Korean pair, Hye Eom/ Ye Jang 12-20 20-22.  The only Malaysian's hope in men double, Khalid/ Mawan also lost to Korean pair, Ko/Yoo in three sets, 6-21 22-24 14-21.

Taufik Hidayat, former world championed and the highest ranked player in this tournament, lost to the second tier player of Korea, Hyun Il Lee, 12-21 21-15 and 21-17.  This is the third lost of Taufik from Lee. Taufik only won once in 2001 World Championship.  However, Indonesia still has Simon Santoso who won of Kashyap Parupalli 21-19 21-10. In the semi final round, Simon will meet Du Pengyu (China) after Wang Zhengming retired in the second set.  Hashim will meet Hyun Il Lee.

In the men double events, there was Indonesia battle between Kido/ Setiawan against Chandra/ Gunawan.  The young pair prevailed with the score 18-21 21-14 21-18.   They will meet the event favorite, Koo/ Yoo in the semi final.  Another two pairs in the semi final are Fang/ Lee (Chinese Taipei) and Chai/ Guo (China).

Women single will feature three China players and one Chinese Taipei.  A raising star of China, Li Han, will play Shao Cheng (Chinese Taipei) in semi final after she the quarter final match against Xiao Chen in straight set 21-17 21-14.  The other two China pairs who will play in semi final are Wang Shixian and Li Xuerei.

JAKARTA: The Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) has announced its representatives for the 26th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games, including current young legend Taufik Hidayat.

Team manager Maria Fransisca said that besides the big name of Taufik, she had also included Simon Santoso, Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka and Tommy Sugiarto in the men’s singles competition.

“Adriyanti Firdasari, Lindaweni Fanetri, Maria Febe Kusumastuti and Bellatrix Manuputty will play in women’s singles,” added Maria at PBSI’s training camp in Cipayung, East Jakarta, on Friday, as quoted by tempointeraktif.com.

“Bona Septano-Mohammad Ahsan and Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan will enter the men’s doubles. Greysia Polii-Meiliana Jauhari and Vita Marissa-Nadya Melati in the women’s doubles, while Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir and Fran Kurniawan-Pia Zebadiah will compete in mixed doubles,” she added.

Indonesia’s mixed doubles coach Richard Maenaky hoped that his pairs would produce an all-Indonesian final at the Games.

Although many consider Taufik as too strong for the rest of the competition at the Games, the 31 year old said that he placed the fortunes of his country’s team above his current world No. 5 ranking.

“[I am] just like a pond, waiting for its water to run dry. I’m sure I will retire after [taking part in] the 2012 Olympics,” said Taufik.

Indonesia aims to secure four golds from the seven that are up for grabs at the Games, which will run from Nov. 11-22 in Jakarta and Palembang, South Sumatra.