Indonesia will make it to knockout stage at Thomas Cup Finals, says team manager M. Feriansyah
Indonesia’s team manager M. Feriansyah is optimistic for a good performance by the team as he said that shuttlers will make it to reach into the final eight at the Thomas Cup Finals, which will take place in Wuhan, China, from May 20-27.
Thomas Cup is the most prestigious men’s team-event championship in the arena of badminton and all top nations in the world field best shuttlers to participate in this tournament to earn glory for the respective countries.
Indonesia has been placed in Group A along with the top seeds China and lower ranked England.
Four groups have been drawn in the Thomas Cup and two teams from every group will reach into the knockout stage, which will be quarter-final stage of the tournament.
Feriansyah is confident that Indonesia will qualify for the knockout stage.
He said, “We are optimistic about qualifying for the final eight.”
Indonesian shuttlers have always been playing top class badminton and have also been getting good results in this prestigious tournament since its origin.
However, Indonesia’s most experienced shuttler Taufik Hidayat also agrees that Indonesia will reach in the quarter-final of Thomas Cup Finals.
However, Taufik has also a few concerns about the lack of depth in Men’s Singles category in the national squad.
He is confident for the Doubles shuttlers to live up to expectations but he is not that optimistic for Singles players as there is a visible weakness in this category in Indonesia at the moment.
Taufik said, “We have plenty of players to choose from in doubles, but that’s not the case in singles.”
However, still Indonesia stands a good chance to make it to quarter-final without facing much trouble as England will be quite vulnerable for Indonesian shuttlers to overpower.
To overcome the shuttlers from China will be virtually impossible for Indonesian squad this time as Chinese players seem far superior to Indonesian shuttlers particularly in Men’s Singles category.
However, the team manager and Taufik are confident that Indonesia will reach at the knock out stage.
At the quarter-final stage, Indonesia still stands a chance to make it to the top four if Indonesian shuttlers find a weaker opponent in the quarter-final.
China will be the hosting nation of Thomas Cup Finals and is also the favourite to win this team-event tournament with its impressive strength in both categories including Men’s Singles and Men’s Doubles.
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