"Instead of football, this is the only sport that we can be proud of. Badminton gives us the actual pride to be among the bests in world's sports," the 27 year-old shop attendant told Xinhua.
He said that he would skip watching the ongoing World Cup matches to cheer and support Indonesian badminton players.
Agus said that with the absence of Chinese team this year, Indonesian team has greater chance to seize the championship, saying that Chinese team has always been a major hurdle for Indonesia in international badminton tournaments.
Trying to analyze Indonesian team's chance to win the tournament, Agus said that the only tough contenders left in the matches are Malaysian and South Korean teams.
"But those teams came with incomplete forces. So I would say that we now have 60 percent to 40 percent chances to win," Agus said.
To express their support to the host country's team, the tournament organizer provides a Comment Wall formed in such a huge white board and placed in the stadium entrance gate. Supporters are allowed to write down their supports at the wall.
The organizer set a different design venue this year, which is better than they were in the previous year. At the press conference held prior to the tournament, the organizing officials said that the new venue design was aimed at demonstrating Indonesia's preparedness to hold, Premier Super Series, a higher level of badminton tournament sanctioned by BWF starting next year.
With good reputation at organizing badminton tournaments, Indonesia and three other countries are endorsed by BWF to organize Premier Super Series that provides higher amount of total rewards.
Under the Premier Super Series rules, the official said that Indonesia Open tournament would provide a total reward of 600,000 U.S. dollars next year, or significantly higher than 250,000 U.S. dollars under the super series rule this year.
