Genting Highlands: The Puchong United Badminton Club showed good balance down the stretch and regained their rhythm, routing the Kepong Badminton Club 10-6 to defend their Purple League title at Arena of Stars, Genting Highlands on Sunday.
Puchong got off to slow start when Goh Giap Chin lost to Soon Joo Ven of Kepong 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 10-11 in the first men’s singles match.
Trailing behind 1-3, Deng Xuan of Puchong set her team on path to comeback with a convincing 11-10, 11-10, 11-6 over Qin JinJing in the first women’s singles match, which put Puchong on the lead with 4-3.
When Tan Boon Heong/Mak Hee Chun of Puchong took the court to face Mads Conrad Petersen/Rian Agung Saputro in the men’s doubles match, many audiences doubted how much gas was left in the tank of old-timers such like Tan and Mak compared to Petersen/Saputro who were still at their prime.
Tan/Mak eventually came out on top in the highly anticipated men’s doubles match, beating Petersen/Saputro 5-11, 11-9, 11-10, 11-10 to expand Puchong’s lead with 7-4.
In a must win situation, Cheah Yee See/Ricky Karandasuwardi fought tooth and nail trying to keep Kepong’s hope alive in the championship tie facing Eom Hyewon/Tang Chun Man of Puchong United in the mixed doubles match. The match was extremely intense where all wins were determined by margin of one point. With only few seconds left, Karandasuwardi served to Tang in the beginning of fifth-set at 1-1; and with a little bit luck, Tang’s return successfully rolled over to the other side just before the end of the match. The lucky shot gave Puchong an unassailable lead of 10-6, allowing them to repeat as Purple League champions.
Puchong took home total cash amount of RM520,000 as the 2018/2019 Purple League champions while Kepong received RM265,000.
