Birmingham: Indonesia almost monopolized the men’s doubles semi-finals when it has three men’s pairs to compete in the last four of the 2022 All England.
The No. 1 seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo were the first Indonesian men’s pair to book a ticket to the semi-finals when they saved six game-points in the first game, coming from 15-20 to win the first game 24-22 against No. 5 seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India. The Minions then outlasted the Indian pair 21-17 in the second game.
“We were just lucky in the first set. But that gave us a lot of motivation, and we were more confident in the second game,” said Sukamuljo.
Indonesia’s World No. 28 Muhammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana pulled off a huge upset when they saved 3 match-points to beat reigning world champions Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan 16-21, 21-16, 22-20.
Meanwhile, the No. 2 seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan were playing with strong defense to see off No. 7 seeds Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-15, 22-20 to become the third Indonesian men’s doubles pair to make the semi-finals.
“Muhammad Shohibul Fikri/Bagas Maulana played well today, they beat the Japanese pair, I hope they can keep working hard to get better,” Setiawan praised the young Indonesian pair after the match.
Indonesia could have had another men’s pair enter the semi-finals, but, the World No. 29 Leo Rolly Carnando/Daniel Marthin fought for 51 minutes to go down to World No. 19 He Jiting/Tan Qiang of China 21-15, 16-21, 14-21.
Gideon/Sukamuljo will play Fikri/Maulana while Ahsan/Setiawan will meet Tan/He on Saturday.
In women’s doubles, Malaysia’s Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan went down fighting against Jeong Na Eun/Kim Hye Jeong of Korea 21-15, 17-21, 9-21. Jeong/Kim will play Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan next, while Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu of China will play India’s qualifiers Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela in another women’s doubles semi-final.
The mixed doubles No. 2 seeds Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong will set up a 2020 Tokyo Olympics final rematch with compatriots and No. 3 seeds Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping on Saturday. The No. 1 seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai will battle No. 4 seeds Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan in another mixed doubles semi-final.
