Indonesia has annouced their Thailand Open team, and it consists of mainly what they called "2nd string shuttlers" The only real names we are going to hear from in the MS is from Sony Dwi K, and Budi Santoso. The rest are mostly unknowns..... However, in the MD its a different story, there are 2 scratch pairs including some big names like Candra, Sigit and Halim..... They split the world no.1 pairing of Candra/Sigit and partnered Candra with Halim and Sigit with Halim's partner Luluk. So its Candra/Halim and Sigit/Luluk. They will also be playing in the MX. Here is part of the article...... Tony's gold medal-winning partner in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Candra Wijaya, will team up with Halim Heryanto. Meanwhile, Sigit Budiarto will play in tandem with Luluk Hadianto. Also competing are second-stringers Ronne Rontolalu and Imam Sodikin, and juniors Alven Yulianto and Hendra Gunawan. Emma Ermawaty will partner Eny Widiowati in the women's doubles. Yunita Tetty is paired with Monica, Eny Erlangga with Jo Novita and Lita Nurlita is teamed up with Endang Nursugianti. PBSI has named eight pairs for the mixed doubles. Budi will be paired with Emma, Ronne with Eny Widiowati, Imam with Lina Marlina, Hendra with Lita, Alven with Yunita, Candra with Jo, Halim with Endang and Sigit with Eny Erlangga.
On 1st impressions, itt can be viewed from two angles. One - give exposure. or Two - desperation. The surprise loss of Tony G reduces their assurance in Men's doubles. They are worried that they would not even have one person to come through for the MS in the Thomas Cup. PBSI need at least one good singles player. It doesn;t matter if that person hasn't played for a while - he could then play at 3rd singles in the Thomas Cup........another reason perhaps that Hendrawan has been absent. Giving the other singles players more chance to overtake Hendrawan's world ranking is a good ploy. Hendrawan is a great Thomas Cup member to have. Other Thomas Cup great tactical strategies were China's dropping of Han Jian against Indonesia and 1998 Hendrawan playing at 2nd singles with an injured Heryanto Arbi playing 1st singles.
I thought they could only field the players in rank order? If they decided to drop a higher ranked player, they would have to drop him completely. Like they couldn't play Hendrawan in 1st singles and then Marleve in 2nd or 3rd.......
That's right. Han Jian was dropped when ranked higher than Yang Yang. Although, Heryanto Arbi was injured, his ranking was higher than that of Hendrawan at that time.
