Indonesian shuttlers urged to up game in Singapore Open

JAKARTA, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia expected much on its female badminton players to improve their performance from last year when they take part in this year's Singaporean Open, starting next Tuesday.

Indonesian women's doubles pairs Shendy Puspa Irawati/Meiliana Jauhari and Greysia Polii/Nitya Krishinda had to be content with a quarterfinal finish in last year's event. Coach Aryono Miranat blamed the poor performance on the players' lack of international experience.

"I have to admit our senior women's doubles players have limited tournament experience, so their game hasn't matured yet," he was quoted by the Jakarta Post as saying.

"The more tournaments a shuttler joins, the more mature their performance will be. That is what our women's doubles players lack; but hopefully they can improve in the Singapore Open," Aryono added.

World No. 7 Shendy/Meiliana and world No. 19 Greysia/Nitya will be part of the Indonesian contingent heading to Singapore and looking to recover from their failure in last month's Sudirman Cup.

"Regardless of the tough target, we must go for it," Aryono said.

Indonesia also has an outside chance in the women's singles, with coach Marleve Mainaky expecting at least a semifinal finish for Adriyanti Firdasari.

Mixed doubles coach Ri chard Mainaky is making the tournament, which runs from June 9 to 14, as a tryout for the country's top-ranked mixed doubles pair Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir.

The world No. 1 pair is focusing on the defense of the world championship in India on Aug. 10-16.

"The Singapore Open and the Indonesian Open from June 14-21 will be testing grounds for them to create a whole new playing pattern," Richard said recently.

Indonesia will also send Markis Kido/Hendra Setiawan, Rian Sukmawan/Yonatan Suryatama and Bona Septano/Muhammad Ahsan in the men's doubles; and last year's finalist Simon Santoso and Sony Dwi Kuncoro in the men's singles.