Bali: Indonesia’s World No. 1 Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon have set up a rematch with Japan’s World No. 7 Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi in the Indonesia Open final on Sunday.
It will be the second consecutive week that Sukamuljo/Gideon face Hoki/Kobayashi, with the Japanese pair stunned the Indonesians 21-11, 17-21, 21-19 in their Indonesia Masters final encounter in Bali, last Sunday.
Sukamuljo/Gideon a.k.a “the Minions”, told Indonesian media the key to their Indonesia Open semi-final victory against Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India was to press and attack from the start of the match.
“We were grateful to win today. We played fast and pressured them from the start,” said Gideon.
The Minions were quick to pressure the World No. 11 men’s doubles pair from India and won the match 21-16, 21-18 in 44 minutes.
“We knew the Indian pair was also strong in attacking, that’s why we didn’t give them many chances and tried to be proactive from the start to start attack straight away,” explained Gideon.
The Indonesia Open semi-final was the first match since last Friday’s Indonesia Masters, where Sukamuljo/Gideon managed to finish in straight-set. They were engaged in five exhausting three-setters from last Saturday’s Indonesia Masters semi-finals until this Friday’s Indonesia Open quarter-finals.
“Obviously it’s nice to be able to finish in two games. But today’s match was not easy either,” said Sukamuljo.
“We played two games in today’s semi-finals, and we spent 44 minutes. Well, the most important thing is that we make our best preparation for tomorrow’s final,” added Sukamuljo.
