Jakarta: Indonesia was able to secure four final places in Sunday’s Indonesia Masters finals, and emerged victorious through Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon in men’s doubles and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men’s singles.
In the men’s doubles final, top seeds Sukamuljo/Gideon came back from dropping a set to beat second seeds Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen of China through rubber set 11-21, 21-10, 21-16 in 57 minutes.
Sukamuljo/Gideon appeared struggling in the first set, allowing Li/Liu seized the first set easily 21-11.
The Indonesian pair showed the Chinese pair they were the real boss on their own country to break Li/Liu with fast attacks. However, at 18-8, the two sides had a small argument when Sukamuljo’s strong smash was called out of bound by referee although Sukamuljo believed that Li’s racket had touched the shuttlecock. Sukamuljo was extremely unhappy with the decision but eventually was willing to continue the game and finish the set with a score of 21-10.
In the third game, Sukamuljo/Gideon showed their dominance by increasing their speed and smashes. Although Li/Liu were trying to catch up, but the Indonesian pair made it too difficult to overcome by winning the third set 21-16 and won their first title in 2018 at home.
The unseeded Indonesian men’s singles player Anthony Sinisuka Ginting won the tournament after defeating Japanese badminton player Kazumasa Sakai 21-13, 21-12.
Nevertheless, Indonesia’s Olympic champions and No. 1 seeds Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir couldn’t add another trophy to the host country as they went down to No. 6 seeds Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong of China 14-21, 11-21.
