SWISS OPEN: IMELDA SHAKES UP INDONESIAN PAIRINGS
by Mike Grossman

March 18, 1997 (NEW SHUTTLENWS) - Imelda Wigoeno Kurniawan, Indonesia's national badminton women's and mixed doubles coach, has decided to try out new combinations at this year's Swiss Open being held this week at Saint Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland.

In women's doubles, she is trying out Resiana Zelin with the jumpsmashing Denyana Lomban. Zelin who partnered Eliza Nathanael to a runner-up finish at last week's All-England Open where they lost the Olympic gold medalists Ge Fei and Gu Jun of China one more time. Lomban together with Indarti Isolina lost in the quarterfinal stage of the All-England.

Imelda is trying to find a combination who can defeat world number ones Ge Fei and Gu Jun. Her current top pairing of Eliza and Zelin have a miserable record against the Olympic gold medalists with no wins against a long string of losses.

In mixed doubles, she has paired her top male player, Tri Kusheryanto, with Eliza, and has put Tri's regular partner with the tall lefthander Flandy Nimpele. Eliza has a more powerful smash than Timur and should give Tri more freedom to freelance in the mid and frontcourt areas where he is very effective with his quickness and deception.

In the All-England mixed doubles finals last Saturday, the pair of Liu Yong and Ge Fei maneuvered Timur to the backcourt, knowing they could easily defend against her smash, and exploited Kusheryanto's penchant for playing in the midcourt to defeat the Indonesians in two straight games 15-10 and 15-2.