Bali: Indonesia’s World No. 1 Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon fought hard against Malaysia’s World No. 14 Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi before winning the Indonesia Masters semi-finals 18-21, 21-17, 21-11 on Saturday.
Although Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, a.k.a “The Minions”, became the only players from Indonesia to make the final, their semi-finals match was tainted by a ridiculous Hawkeye error at the game-point of the first set.
At 20-18 of the first set, Ong Yew Sin was serving to Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and the serve landed short. However, Teo Ee Yi immediately challenge the call, then the Hawkeye review showed the shuttlecock actually landed in. Ong/Teo wrapped up the first game with 18-21 after the Hawkeye decision.
However, several video reruns after the Hawkeye decision clearly showed the shuttlecock was indeed landed about 5cm to 8cm before the short service line.
“Yes, that’s a 1,000% error. It’s way far out. You can tell, the Hawkeye was taking a long time to make the decision. I don’t understand, these types of error seemed to happen randomly,” said Sukamuljo after the match.
“That’s 1,000% short, they also admitted it,” added Sukamuljo.
Hawkeye calling this one “in” on game point is honestly shocking!
Not going to be easy trusting that system again, but to be honest, I don’t think most of us ever trusted it 100% anyway. I always challenge if it’s an important point and fairly close to the line.
🎥 @Thelauge pic.twitter.com/Q9A5ZM3yBR— HK Vittinghus (@hkvittinghus) November 20, 2021
Fortunately, “the Minions” didn’t let this incident affect their performance by beating Ong/Teo in the next two games to set up a final encounter with Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi of Japan. The Japanese pair defeated World No. 7 Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia 21-18, 19-21, 21-17 in another men’s doubles semi-final.
In men’s singles, World No. 1 Kento Momota of Japan and World No. 3 Anders Antonsen of Denmark will set up a rematch of the 2019 Indonesia Masters final, where the Dane beat the Japanese 21–16, 14–21, 21–16 in 2019 final.
Antonsen also advanced to the 2020 Indonesia Masters final, before losing to Anthony Sinisuka Ginting from the host country 21–17, 15–21, 9–21.
“I am not thinking about the meeting record, I am looking forward to playing Momota. He looks different now and he has a lot of experience,” said Antonsen.
“The victory in the 2019 Indonesia Masters final against him really motivated me and I will try my best in this year’s final,” added Antonsen.
In the women’s singles final, No. 1 seed Akane Yamaguchi of Japan will play No. 4 seed An Seyoung of Korea. Japan also has representatives in the women’s doubles final with No. 4 seeds Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida to take on unseeded Jeong Na Eun/Kim Hye Jeong of Korea.
In the mixed doubles final, No. 1 seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand will battle No. 8 seeds Tang Chun Man/Tse Ying Suet of Hong Kong for the Indonesia Masters crown.
