By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter

THE Philippine women’s badminton team continued to find the going tough on the second day of the 2020 Badminton Asia Team Championships, swept anew, 5-0, this time by Indonesia in tournament action on Wednesday at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum.

Looking to bounce back from the 5-0 rout they absorbed at the hands of Thailand on opening day on Tuesday, the Filipinas still competed but just could not get the breakthrough in the best-of-five match.

The loss meant the Philippine women’s team was already eliminated from the running in the tournament which serves as a qualifier for the 2020 Thomas and Uber Cup this May.

The Philippine contingent got off to a strong start with Airah Albo taking the first set of her match against Indon opponent Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, 21-19.

It was only the second set the Philippine team (men’s and women’s) had won at that point of the tournament, which is organized by the Philippine Badminton Association and backed by Smart Communications Inc., MVP Sports Foundation, Leisure and Resorts World Corp., Cignal and TV5.

But Ms. Tunjung would recover from the early setback, dominating the match in the next two sets, 21-11, 21-9, to hand Indonesia the 1-0 lead in the tie.

The Indonesian team padded its lead to 3-0 in the next two matches as the Philippine doubles tandem of Alyssa Leonardo and Thea Pomar and singles player Bianca Carlos lost their respective matches.

Misses Leonardo and Pomar dropped their match against Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, 21-18, 21-12.

Ms. Carlos, meanwhile, lost to Ruselli Hartawan, 21-10, 21-18.

The Indonesian sweep was completed after the doubles team-up of Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti and Ribka Sugiarto got the better of Filipinas Joella Rivera and Chanelle Lunod, 21-7, 21-8, and Putri Kusuma Wardani ruled her singles joust with Sarah Barredo, 21-19, 21-14.

As of this writing, the Philippine men’s team was still to face Singapore where it hopes to extend its tournament life.

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