Jakarta: Mixed doubles coach of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI), Richard Mainaky hoped young mixed doubles pairs from Indonesia could put up breakout performances at this year’s world championships, which will be held in Jakarta from August 10 to August 16.
“Four pairs of Indonesian mixed doubles are physically and mentally ready to play in the World Championships,” said Richard Mainaky at a press conference after the 2015 Yonex-Sunrise Special Doubles Championship, in Jakarta on Monday.
Indonesia will be fielding Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir, Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto, Riky Widianto/Richi Puspita Dili, and Edi Subaktiar/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in the mixed doubles category.
“Not only Tontowi/Liliyana, I am hoping the entire mixed doubles squad could play their best to compete for the world title. Praveen Jordan has exhibited more patience at his game recently; while Edi/Gloria are young players on the rise, which I am also expecting a surprise from them,” added Richard.
In addition, Richard told reporter that the pair of Edi/Gloria has the ability to reach the quarter-finals in Jakarta.
“Because Edi/Gloria will face opponents they have played before prior to the quarter-finals,” said Richard.
“We do not put too much pressure on Tontowi/Liliyana to win the World Championships, because the Rio 2016 Olympics remains their priority as they are preparing for the world meet.”
“We have started to change their exercises and have added advanced training techniques for Tontowi/Liliyana before the 2015 Indonesia Open, and the result obtained by Tontowi/Liliyana has proved the change was successful.”
Richard also revealed that PBSI have added some drills that aimed on improving Tontowi’s defensive presence and to prepare him for a potential clash with two top mixed doubles from China, namely Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei, Xu Chen/Ma Jin.
