W

orld No. 1 duo Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan are one step closer to winning the Asian Badminton Championship after securing a place in the finals in Suwon, South Korea, on Saturday.

The Indonesian pair booked a crushing 21-17, 21-15 win over Chai Biao and Liu Xiaolong of China.

The result boded well for Kido, who has been dealing with an ongoing knee injury.

The Asia Championship is the first international competition for the Olympic champions this year and may serve as a testing-ground for their new formation. For the past few weeks, the duo have been testing an alternative strategy to minimize the impact of Kido's injury.

In the first and second rounds of the tournament, when the pair fought gruelling matches against their opponents from Japan and China, Kido said the new formation, which has him playing at the front of the net, felt a little awkward.

The 24-year-old shuttler was previously accustomed to marshalling the rear court with his jump smashes.

"Wherever our position is, we are determined to concentrate on scoring," Kido told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

Kido and Hendra will soon face eighth seed Ko Sung Hyun and Yoo Yeon Seong, who booked their final position by defeating fellow Koreans Hwang Ji Man and Han Sang Hoon 19-21, 21-15, 21-16 in a tight 52-minute contest.

Kido and Hendra are the only Indonesians left in contention for the Asian trophy after fifth seeds Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa in the mixed doubles section lost in the second round to their Korean opponents.

Sunday's finals will also feature an all-China affair between fourth seed Bao Chunlai and Chen Long in the men's singles, and fifth seed Xie Xingfang against sixth seed Zhu Lin in the women's singles.