TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesian mens singles player Ihsan Maulana Mustofa lost to Malaysian top player Lee Chong Wei in the semifinal round of Indonesia Open 2016 on Saturday.
He was beaten in a straight set 9-21, 18-21 in a 39 minute game of the super series premier event.
This was the first joust between the 20-year old Indonesian player and the 33-year old world ranking player of Malaysia.
Chong Wei opened the game by attacking with cross smashes while Ihsan tried to play with long rallies but his shots often went too far on the right or left side of the court. Ihsan was left at 2-8 although he was able to pull a 1-1 draw, and again 2-2.
Chong Wei did not have to move much, merely going backward and forward once or twice to defend himself against Ihsans attacks and continued with his sharp smashes to accumulate points before ending the first game 21-9.
Ihsan tried to fight in the second game but with his sharp and cross smashes, Chong Wei made Ihsan work very hard to catch up.
The Olympic silver medalist in 2008 and 2012 easily returned Ihsans smashes. However Ihsan was able to score a point with his smash right on Chong Weis body and another when Chong Wei let go Ihsan`s smash, making it 8-7 for Chong Wei.
After losing 9-11, Ihsan was able to narrow the gap in his favor to 16-15 and 17-15 before Chong Wei finally equalized the score 17-17 and later ended the game 21-18.
Chong Wei will meet the winner of the match between Jan O Jorgensen from Denmark and Tian Houwei from China in the final round on Sunday.
ANTARA
