Maria Kristin Yulianti

Maria Kristin Yulianti
Personal information
Country	Indonesia
Born	(1985-06-25) June 25, 1985 Tuban
Height	1.69 m (5 ft 7 in)
Handedness	Right
Coach	Marleve Mainaky
Women's singles
Highest ranking	11
Current ranking	53 (January 1, 2010)
BWF profile

Olympic medal record
Competitor for  Indonesia
Women's badminton
Bronze	2008 Beijing	Singles

Maria Kristin Yulianti (born June 2, 1985 in Tuban^[1]) is a women's singles badminton player from Indonesia. She is one of the most successful female Indonesian badminton players, along with Susi Susanti and Mia Audina.

Career

2004

She played in some satellite competitions and won the Malaysian tournament.

2005

She played in more satellite tournaments and won three: the Surabaya Satellite, the Jakarta Satellite, and the Asian Satellite Badminton Tournament.

2006

She started to play tougher competitions but still played in satellite tournaments. She played in the Luxembourg Open and was the runner-up. Then she followed with the Bitburger Open and also achieved runner-up, beaten by Xu Huaiwen of Germany in the final, but she scored an upset by beating the seeded player Pi Hongyan of France in the quarterfinal. She played in the Singapore Satellite tournament and claimed the title. She became the most successful player on the national team.

2007

This year, Yulianti was the dominant player on her team. She played in the BWF World Championships as the 15th seed, her highest rank in 2007. She was beaten in the third round by the world number one, Zhang Ning of China. Then, she reached her first quarterfinal of the Super Series tournament in Indonesia, by beating Lu Lan of China in a rubber set. She was stopped by Petya Nedelcheva of Bulgaria in straight sets. Then, she played a super series tournaments and lost to another high-ranked player. In December, she won the Southeast Asian Games in Thailand over fellow countrywoman Adriyanti Firdasari.

2008

She competed in a few super series tournaments such as All England and the Swiss Open but was stopped in the first round in each. She entered the Uber Cup team and won against the second-seeded country, Japan, by a score of 4–1. While she was defeated by the Japanese, Eriko Hirose, 21–9, 20–22, 20–22, her teammates secured the team victory against the other Japanese players. They reached the final for the first time in 14 years by beating Hong Kong in the quarterfinal and Germany in the semifinal. They were defeated in the final by China, 0–3.

Maria Kristin then competed in the Indonesia Super Series. She beat her compatriot, Pia Zebadiah Bernadet and Yao Jie of Netherlands in the first two rounds. She followed this by defeating the 7th seed, Zhou Mi of Hong Kong in three sets, 21–17, 15–21, 21–16. She accomplished a big upset by beating the Chinese senior player and second seed, Zhang Ning, in a very tight match, 21–14, 20–22, 22–20 and reached her first super series final. There she was beaten by the 1st seed, Zhu Lin, after fighting for more than an hour in three sets, 18–21, 21–17, 14–21.

Yulianti's biggest achievement in the sport, thus far, is earning the women's singles bronze medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing as an unseeded player. She is only the third Indonesian woman, and the fifth woman not representing China, to be awarded a medal in women's singles since badminton entered the Games in 1992. In the round of 64, she saved a match point against Juliane Schenk of Germany and won the game in the rubber set, 18–21, 21–13, 22–20. She followed this by defeating Yoana Martinez of Spain in straight sets. She started to get noticed after she defeated the All England champion, Tine Rasmussen of Denmark, in three sets, 18–21, 21–19, 21–14. She reached the semifinal by beating Saina Nehwal of India after she saved 8 game points and won 26–28, 21–14, 21–15. She lost to eventual gold medalist Zhang Ning in the semifinal, 15–21, 15–21. However, Yulianti defeated the 3rd seed, Lu Lan, in the playoff for the bronze medal, 11–21, 21–13, 21–15.

After the Olympics, she competed in some super series tournaments, although she was always defeated by Lu Lan in three sets. Notable matches include her victory over the 6th-seeded Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia in the Japan Open, 18–21, 21–13, 21–6, as well as her defeat of Zhu Lin, the 5th seed, 21–15, 21–14, in the French Open.

2009

This year might be her worst time in her career. She got injured from December last year, and played her first Super Series tournament in June. Before that time, she was followed Malaysia, but failed to enter the next round, after beaten by Zhang Beiwen in the first round. Then, she was represented Indonesia in Sudirman Cup by only winning her first match against Sayaka Sato.

References

External links

• BWF Player Profile
• PB Djarum Player's Profile