"Not a single player will represent us in the final round. It is something we need to study. From the beginning, we relied on mens doubles and mixed doubles events as our players in these events really deserved championship titles," manager of the PBSIs national training center team meant for Indonesia Open 2016, Ricky Soebagja, said here on Saturday.
He claimed the players had prepared themselves well for the tournament that offers a total of US$900,000 in prizes although some of them, such as Hendra Setiawan, Mohammad Ahsan and Greysia Polii, only had a week to prepare for the event after having taken part in the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup in Kunshan, China.
Ricky, chief of the sub-section of PBSI national training center, pointed out that the Indonesia Open 2016 was part of the super series tournaments meant to prepare national players who had qualified for the Rio Olympic Games 2016.
"We tried to ensure that our players are prepared in such a way that their performance peaks at the Rio Olympic Games. The losses in the early rounds of the Indonesia Open, however, were unexpected," he observed.
Although the top players failed to win titles, Ricky emphasized that he was proud of the performance of the younger players, especially those playing in the mens singles and womens doubles events.
"Players such as Jonatah, Ihsan, Anthony as well as Anggia/Ketut and Tiara/Rizky have performed extraordinarily well," he noted.
PBSIs chief of grooming and performance affairs Rexi Mainaky informed that the national training center would evaluate the performances of all players in the Indonesia Open as well as their coaches.
"I will see how deep is their desire to achieve titles here, especially those qualifying for the Olympic Games," he added.
He let it be known that the PBSI would also give them a challenge to win titles in the Indonesia Open 2017.
"Our younger players lost because they were not calm enough on the ground. They must learn from this tournament. We have three mens singles players and two pairs of womens doubles players," he said.
PBSI, he revealed, would also evaluate the performance of senior pairs like Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan. "We will watch the video of the performance to see if their style was understood by their opponents. At the game yesterday, their opponents rendered Hendra/Ahsan unable to develop their play," he noted.
Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, the only Indonesian representative in the semifinal round, was beaten by top Malaysian player Lee Chong Wei 9-21, 18-21, dashing the countrys hope for a champion title from the event. (*)
Editor: Heru Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2016
