Jakarta: Badminton fans lavished praise on Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik for their caring nature towards their opponents, Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan of Indonesia when Rambitan injured his left knee while leading at 20-17 in the decider.
Fans also gave Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan a lot of respect for their fighting spirit when they decided to remain on the court to fight all the way before losing 21-14, 12-21, 20-22 to Chia/Soh.
“Although we want to win, we did not want to take advantage of his injury by flick-serving Rambitan,” said Chia.
In fact, after Rambitan sustained the injury, Chia/Soh only redirected their attack towards Kusumawardana at the backcourt instead of targeting Rambitan who could only stand near the net.
Chia gave credit to the Indonesian pair for playing a brilliant match until the unfortunate event happened to Rambitan.
“To be frank, if not for the knee injury, they should have won today’s match. I hope a speedy recovery for Rambitan,” added Chia.
In the women’s doubles semi-finals, the No. 7 seeds Jongkolphan Kititharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai of Thailand shocked No. 1 seeds Chen Qinchen/Jia Yifan of China 21-19, 21-15 on Friday to meet No. 6 seeds Nami Matsuyama/Chiharu Shida of Japan next. Meanwhile, the No. 4 seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan will meet No. 2 seeds Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan of Korea for a final berth.
In mixed doubles, last week’s Indonesia Masters mixed doubles champions – the No. 2 seeds Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong will set up a Tokyo Olympics final rematch with compatriots and the No. 4 seeds Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping in the semi-finals while No. 6 seeds Seo Seung Jae/Chae Yu Jung of Korea will face-off against No. 3 seeds Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino of Japan.
