Bali: Indonesia’s Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, a.k.a “the Minions”, managed to secure tickets to the semi-finals of the BWF World Tour Super 1000 Indonesia Open which will take place at the Bali Convention Center, Nusa Dua on Saturday.
The World No. 1 pair from Indonesia needed 52 minutes to beat World No. 12 Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi 14-21, 21-14, 21-16 in the quarter-finals on Friday.
Starting in the 2021 Indonesia Masters semi-finals, where Sukamuljo/Gideon were facing the same opponents – Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi last Saturday, until the Indonesia Masters final, and then the first three rounds of the 2021 Indonesia Open, Sukamuljo/Gideon had played five rubber-games in a row.
“It’s another tough match today. They played really well today,” said Sukamuljo.
“Of course, it’s very tiring,” added Sukamuljo.
There was a consistent pattern in their last five consecutive three-setters, where the Minions had always dropped the first game.
“Yes, our opponents were always very aggressive and played really fast at the beginning. For us, we need time to adjust to the situation, but that’s not the excuse,” said Gideon.
The World No. 1 men’s pair will meet World No. 11 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India on Saturday.
Meanwhile, last week’s Indonesia Masters champions, Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi will set up an all-Japanese battle with Akira Koga/Taichi Saito in another men’s doubles semi-finals.
In women’s doubles, Indonesia’s Tokyo Olympics gold medalists – Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu became the only Indonesian women’s doubles pair to enter the semi-finals, after seeing off the resilient Mayu Matsumoto/Ayako Sakuramoto from Japan 21-16, 12-21, 21-18.
Polii/Rahayu will take on Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand on Saturday while Baek Ha Na/Lee Yu Rim of Korea will meet Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan in another women’s doubles semis.
