That explained how much he has done to keep our line-up at their best form. Not easy to create the hunger for others to win,at the same time,u must win too. Captain must not lose in the first game.Give him credit for that.
Errr BC site was down. Maybe too much traffic for TC/Uber, he he. Anyway, livescore got stuck in the midst of exciting Indonesia vs Thailand TC. Indonesia finally won 3-2 thru Kido/Setiawan, Joko/Hendra & SImon Santoso. If Thailand had a more experienced 3rd MS..... Indonesia might have been embarassed in front of home crowd. Shocking at 1st to see the results that Sony K & Taufik lost.
Thats true, What really happen to taufik....... its a shame, you could see why Sony lost (coz Ponsana is on the roll at the moment) but Taufik losing..... Oh boy if he performs like this in later stages then INA might be in big trouble..... OR maybe they all took it easy since its only the round robin....(I hope so)
INA Ladies did very well to upset Japan 4-1. Butet/Vita won 9-21 21-19 21-14. Firdasari won 21-11 20-22 21-13. Novita/Polii won 21-14 21-18. Zabediah won against Mori 21-19 21-17.
Sony was doing well too at ABC. When I saw Boonsak won, I thought that would be the only pt for Thailand. Then Taufik lost 1st set, I thought he start engine slow or toying with the young Thai player. But credit to Tonongsak, he's improving a lot. Sudket isnt with his regular MD partner but managed to drag Joko/Hendra to rubber.
What a day we have in various sports today! First upset of the tourney: the Indonesian Uber Cup team beating the second-seeded Japanese team 4-1. I expected a much closer scoreline (3-2), but, the INA gals showed their determination and played their heart out today. The first match was a titanic one between Maria Kristin and Eriko Hirose. It ended with the Japanese gal just edging it 22-20, 22-20 in the second and third sets, after losing the first one big time 9-21. This turned out to be Japan's only point in the tie. Up next was the match between Vita Marissa/Lilyana Natsir and Satoko Suetsuna/Miyuki Maeda. Once again, the pair which had won the first set 21-9 (this time the Japanese pair), lost closely 19-21 in the second set. The third set was totally dominated by the home pair as they won 21-14 comfortably to level the score at 1-1. I had predicted that Adriyanti Firdasari would beat Yu Hirayama...and she did deliver the crucial point in ruber-set, winning the tie 21-11, 20-22, 21-13! INA went 2-1 up. INA's second WD, Jo Novita/Greysia Polii also didn't disappoint as they shrugged off their disappointment of losing their Olympic qualification spot by beating the scratch pair of Reiko Shiota/Tomomi Matsuda 21-14, 21-18. INA beat Japan 3-1! Finally, Pia Zebadiah capped off a brilliant afternoon with an impressive winning debut in the Uber Cup, beating Kaori Mori 21-19, 21-17. INA sealed the tie 4-1. With this impressive 4-1 victory over the second-seed, I would expect INA to go for broke too when they face Team Netherlands tomorrow. If they top the group, they will probably face Team Hong Kong (without Zhou Mi) in the Quarter-Final. With the strength in doubles and a confident Pia and Firda, INA has a chance of fulfilling their target of Semi-Final Finish against Malaysia or Denmark.
The Indonesian Thomas Cup team began their campagin against Team Thailand tonight. When I got back home, I already learnt that Sony Dwi Kuncoro lost in straight sets 17-21, 15-21 to an in-form Boonsak Ponsana. An expected defeat I would say of the inconsistent Sony. Thailand went 1-0 up. Then, it was Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan's turn against (surprise surprise) Tesana Panvisvas/Nuttaphon Narkthong. Kido/Hendra simply destroyed the Thai pair 21-11, 21-16 and it was quite odd seeing the big and buly veteran player Tesana Panvisvas still playing. So, Indonesia 1 Thailand 1. Taufik Hidayat's performance was disappointing as he lost surprisingly to the impressive Tanongsak Saensumboonsuk, who just won the Smiling Fish Thailand International Series 2008 a few days ago in Trang Everytime Taufik managed to lead 4-5 pts, the young Thai player refused to give up and levelled it in no time! Taufik was up 17-12 in the second set, when Tanongsak raced ahead with 7 straight pts to overtake Taufik at 19-17. There was no turning back and Thailand led 2-1. As expected, it would be a nervous tie between Hendra A. Gunawan/Joko Riyadi and Sudket Prapakamol/Songphon Anugritayawon since it was AG/Joko's debut in the Thomas Cup. The first set was close enough, but, the Thai pair always had the lead and initiative as they won it 21-17. The tide turned as early as the beginning stage of the second set as AG/Joko started to feel confident of themselves and quickly built up a 11-4 lead at the interval. It was at this time also that livescore at tournamentsoftware.com died on me. In addition, the crucial Premier League match between Manchester United and Wigan also just started and I chose to watch that much. Luckily, AG/Joko didn't disappoint the ferocious home crowd as they won the second set 21-8 to force a rubber. The third set was also won convincinly 21-12. So, the tie was split at 2-2. The last match was between Simon Santoso and Pakkawat Vilailak. Sony kept his nerves and just went on doing his business as he beat the Thai youngster in straight sets. So, Indonesia won the tie 3-2...but...what a nervous debut by the home team. News from Hau-Ge: 1. First time that non-Indonesian line-judges are used by BWF in this competition. According to him, around 10. 2. Once Sony lost the first match, he got booed by the noisy crowd. Oh....and Manchester United have retained their Barclay Premiership title by beating Wigan 2-0
Yes, the Taufik loss was quite unexpected but to say Sony's was shocking?? Come on, Boonsak is no chopped liver . IMO he had a 50/50 chance; he's beaten all the world's top players and his win came as NO SURPRISE to me.
Agree. Sony's defeat was rather expected. Remember...he did lose to Kendrick Lee last year in SEA Games. Even Taufik also lost to Boonsak in the team event. So, Boonsak had the knack of winning the first pt for Team Thailand. However, Taufik's loss was simply shocking. I was totally stunned I thought Poompat would have a better chance against Taufik given that Poompat too had beaten Sony in the Asian Games team event 1.5 years ago. But, Tanongsak was simply superb as he beat the veteran INA player in straight sets. Watch out for this guy....
Indeed, this Tanongsak is one to watch out for. Thailand needs new blood for their team and the youngster has been impressive to say the least [thumbs up]
Thanks for the great detective work as always It had been a very long day for me....starting at 2pm HKG time....phew....and most matches ended happily (including the football matches )
Day 1 Summary (in order of matches played): TC: CHN 4-1 NGR - not much to say. Practice session for the favourites who conceded only 68 points in total (3rd lowest on the day) TC: THA 3-2 GER - when Domke beat Poompat in 3 tough games to go up 2-1, I thought it was curtains for the Thais. GER had the experienced Spitko/Fuchs coming up but the Thais showed tremendous grit to edge this tie and set up young hero Tanongsak's victory over Reuter. UC: CHN 5-0 USA - Favourites CHN toyed with a vastly outclassed USA team, allowing them only 62 points in the 5 match encounter. Bet they would have done better if they had played our Smashie! UC: MAS 5-0 NZL - As expected, MAS rolled over NZ with little incident. They must have their sights firmly set on defeating DEN later to avoid the dreaded CHN cross over. TC: MAS 5-0 ENG - Some unimpressive performances from the Malaysians suggest a tough road ahead if they're to advance further. Only KKK/TBH lived up to their higher ranking with a convincing win... but look who they were playing. TC: DEN 5-0 NZL - DEN opened their campaign in no nonsense manner, destroying NZL in a clinical display. On to the next match... UC: KOR 5-0 SAF - Despite the last minute loss of my babe Jun Jae Youn :crying::crying::crying::crying::crying:, KOR provided the a$$-kicking of the day, allowing the South Africans a paltry 60 points. Without their #1 player, I think they will be pushed to the limit by HK in the group decider later. UC: INA 4-1 JPN - a pulsating encounter which could have gone either way in the opening matches. Maria blew a great opportunity to get INA off to a good start when she let Eriko back in at the death. I really thought INA had to win this one to beat JPN. The second match, I thought, was the turning point. Had Satoko/Miyuki beaten Vita/Butet, I suggest the demoralized Indonesian girls would have caved in. It looked bleak for almost 2 games but the "tomboys" managed to claw a win the the second and run away in the rubber. With their tails up, the rest of the team went on to claim a famous victory. TC: CAN 5-0 NGR - As expected, my boys (go Canada!), took out Nigeria with little fuss. Good to see Canada blood their 3 youngsters (Alvin Lau–a coach at our club, Toby Ng and David Schneider) to give them some experience. Well done CAN, and just enjoy the match against CHN. TC: INA 3-2 THA - Indonesia survive a huge scare against a determined Thai side, but is this where we find a new star born? After Boonsak destroyed Sony and Markis/Hendra won their match relatively comfortably, up stepped young Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk to upset INA hero Taufik Hidayat in 2 tight games. Joko/Hendra justified their selection by winning their do-or-die match to set up Simon's win. But look out for Tanongsak's name in the future; his stock's already risen appreciably. UC: GER 5-0 USA - Smashie makes her debut! But it's a daunting date with Xu Huaiwen, who sweeps our dear girl aside. The remainder of the ties are predictable as GER prepares for its meeting with CHN. UC: DEN 4-1 NZL - New Zealand actually played decently in a few of the matches, taking a point in convincing fashion (Jessica Jonggowisastro over Camilla Sorensen 17-21 11-21). In fact they could have stolen another but Michelle Chan lost agonizingly to Nanna Brosolat Jensen 23-21 in the rubber. Well done New Zealand
I guess the guy had already warmed up and got used to the court from his earlier games in the morning. But the INA veteran had not. Moreover, recently, Taufik seems to show less concentration at the end of games.
What did i predict was correct. Bravo Thailand ! despite the lose, they can still walk away with their head high ! Great Fighting display
BWF invited 10 non INDONESIA line judges, mostly are umpires, including one that created controversial during GL/ZB against Sudket and Saralee..he is there also..only apply when INA team plays....great effort from BWF and hope they do same thing on coming up Olympics as well as KO , CO and others....
