A heroic display by Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo secured Indonesia’s place in tomorrow’s semifinals, upsetting pre-tournament favourites and 2018 runners-up Thailand with a convincing 3-0 victory in today’s quarterfinals of the Uber Cup tournament in Chengdu.World No.38 Ester was the toast of the team as she bounced back from a game down to upset 16th-ranked Supanida Katethong in a marathon 83-minute duel which ended in the 18-year old Indonesia young star winning in identical scores of 19-21, 21-19, 21-19. The Indonesian women’s team are up for another historic moment as they take on Korea in tomorrow’s semifinals (0930 hrs local time in Chengdu) at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Centre Gymnasium.However, it was their star player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung who opened today’s path to victory for Indonesia as she battled her way to overcome Thai’s favourite Ratchanok Intanon player whom she had never beaten in their previous eight meetings.Tunjung wrapped up the game in a tight 50-minute game which ended with the world No.9 Indonesian winning 22-20, 21-18. Top pair Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Ramadhanti, as expected delivered widened the gap with a win over Jongkolphan Kithitarakul-Rawinda Prajongjai 21-17, 21-14 in 52 minutes, opening the path for Ester to seal the tie for Indonesia. As expected, there was no trouble for South Korea as they eased past Chinese Taipei 3-0, all in straight games of 117 minutes. The defending champion remain on the right track in their title defence campaign, with world No.1 An Se Young facing no trouble downing Wen Chi Hsu 21-14, 21-9 followed by top pair Baek Has Na/Lee So Hee’s 21-6, 21-19 win over Hsu Ya Ching-Lin Wang Chin.Sim Yu Jin sealed the tie for the Koreans with a 21-5, 21-15 win over Sung Shuo Yun.
In the other semifinal, host China take on Japan in what is expected to be another thrilling and tight encounter for a place in the finals on Sunday.
