Kuala Lumpur: Indonesia is well-known for producing top men’s doubles pairs such as Rexy Mainaky/Ricky Subagja, Tony Gunawan/Candra Wijaya, Hendra Setiawan/Markis Kido, and the current World No. 1 pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon.
Malaysia’s men’s doubles coach – Paulus Firman, who used to be the women’s doubles coach at the Badminton Association of Indonesia or PBSI, also tried to apply the same tactics to the Malaysian players he is currently coaching in the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
According to Malaysia’s World No. 21 men’s doubles player – Teo Ee Yi, the Malaysian men’s doubles pairs were exposed to Indonesian-style of training during long breaks where there were no major tournaments.
“We are now practicing the playing style of men’s doubles pairs from Indonesia, focusing on attacks and lowering the first three shots,” said Teo.
The Johor-born told reporters that they have been adopting to the training style over the past two weeks.
“Our coach has praised us that that we are gradually getting better under that new training approach.”
“This type of training actually fit my playing style really well,” added Teo.
“We also watched a lot of videos from Indonesian pairs, especially Hendra-Markis. We were trying to study their movements and strategies.”
The 26-year-old Teo also realized that he and his partner, Ong Yew Sin, would need to be more consistent in order to perform better.
“We have to keep up with the momentum, it’s hard to get results we always wanted, because sometimes we lose, sometimes we win.”
“Therefore, I usually do not think too much, just play my best at the tournaments,” said Teo.
Teo Ee Yi and Ong Yew Sin will play Japan’s No. 5 seeds, Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe in the first round of Indonesia Open that will be held from 16 to 21 July, which also offered a total prize money of USD $1,250,000.
