Women's Badminton Team 18th Asian Games 2018

18th  Asian Games Jakarta

Palembang 2018

Indonesia women's badminton team proceeds 

to Semifinals

In

Asian Games 2018

Final score of  5-2

Antara/Palembang/ Jakarta

Indonesia secured a place in the 2018 Asian Games women’s badminton semifinals after defeating Korea 3-1 in the quarterfinal match held at Istora Senayan on Monday.

The first winning point for the host was contributed by Indonesia's first single, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, who had to play three games before conquering Sung Ji-hyun 21-13, 8-21, 21-18.

Playing in front of home fans who kept on cheering, Gregoria, who is ranked lower than Sung, appeared dominant in the first set.

"It looked like the opponent still had to adapt to the first game. However, I actually played cautiously and tended to be timid in the second set, so I lost," Gregoria said.

Entering the decisive third set, Gregoria said she did not think too much about the final result and chose to play without burden. She eventually beat Sung, ranked ninth in the world, as well as opened the way to victory for the home team.

According to Gregoria, Sung had a high body posture, making her stroke sharp and attacking. "Therefore, I must move faster in order to deal with her attacking style," she said.

Gregoria said she was tense because she was the opening player for the quarterfinal match, but was grateful to be able to give points for other players who would play in the next round.

Indonesia then doubled the lead through the women's doubles pair Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu, who won two straight sets 21-18, 21-17 over pair Lee So-hee and Shin Seung-chan.

The second set was postponed for a while because the monitor had brief technical issues "It didn’t bother us. Most importantly, we have to show the best game. And this is for Indonesia," she said.

However, Korea stole one point in the third game after their second single player, Lee Se-yeon, beat Indonesia's second single Fitriani in three sets 21-14, 8-21, 21-12.

Indonesia was then able to ensure victory through the second doubles pair, Della Destiara Haris-Rizki Amelia Pradipta, who won two sets over pair Baek Ha-na and Kim Hye-rin with 21-19, 21-15.

The match in the fourth game was tight as the two pairs were alternately led in points.

In the first set, Indonesia, which had a 20-16 lead, had to lose three points before winning the game. Meanwhile, in the second game, the Indonesian women's doubles pair was behind 0-4 before finally catching up and levelling 7-7 and winning far enough 17-10.

Della-Rizki sealed the victory for Indonesia through a hard smash from Kim's defensive returns.

"From the beginning, we anticipated long shots from opponents and played loose, without burden," Rizki said.

AG Media and PR in cooperation with The Jakarta Post