“I have won the world championships twice with my previous partner, Nova. Hopefully, I can make it a third time with my current partner, Towi,” Liliyana said at the closing of the Djarum Indonesia Open Superseries Premier in Jakarta.

Liliyana and Towi finished as runners-up in the superseries, losing to the eventual winners, Chinese pair Zhang Nan and Zhao Yunlei, whom they beat at the Singapore Open.

Around a year has passed since Liliyana, 25, teamed up with Tontowi, 23. The two have rocketed to the world number two rank after snatching consecutive victories at the India Open Superseries, the Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold and the Singapore Open Superseries.

Despite an elbow injury that forced Liliyana to pull out of the Sudirman Cup world mixed team badminton championship, the duo convincingly ousted rows of world-class opponents from China, South Korea, Taiwan and Denmark when playing in Singapore and Jakarta.

Their defeated opponents include the world number one Zhang and Zhao, recent All England champions Xu Chen and Ma Jin, Beijing Olympics gold medalists Lee Yong-dae and Ha Jung-eun, top-notch Taiwanese pair Chen Hung Lin and Cheng Wen Hsing, Beijing Olympics bronze medalists He Hanbing and Yu Yang and 2009 world champions Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Rhytter Juhl.

In their debut last year, Liliyana and Towi won titles at the Grand Prix Gold tournaments in Macau and Indonesia.

For Liliyana, such promising starts in the early days of a new partnership are common.

In 2004, Liliyana, or Butet, as she is popularly called, was a 19-year-old junior who had just started playing with Nova Widianto, a highly-experienced doubles specialist who was eight years her senior.

They made an impressive debut, upsetting two-time Olympic champions Zhang Jun and Gao Ling at the 2004 China Open and claiming their first title at the Singapore Open afterwards.

A year later, Liliyana and Nova returned from Anaheim in the US as world champions.

The pair, who reached the world top rank in 2006, ruled the badminton arena by winning numerous superseries and earning silver medals at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Last year, national mixed doubles coach Richard Mainaky, the man who put Liliyana and Nova together in the first place, decided to split the pair up due to Nova’s age-related decrease in stamina by pairing Liliyana with Tontowi. It was a calculated risk made with gold medals at the 2012 London Olympics in mind.

“It’s best to avoid too much contentment. It has been quite a fast ride, Liliyana said.

The duo acknowledged they are still a work in progress, despite their rapid rise from world number 76 when they were first teamed together in August.

“The last thing we want to do is stagnate. We need to constantly push ourselves to play with more variation in our game so that opponents won’t be able to read us that easily. We should also improve technically on the court,” Liliyana said, adding that she knew her opponents were closely watching her fast rise.

Liliyana said that she is still learning how to be a mentor, a role Nova used to play to her.

“I realized that my current partner still needs more experience, especially in dealing with high-pressure opponents. I’m gradually learning how to not let my game affected by pressure from opponents and, at the same time, provide guidance to her. Hopefully, our efforts will lead to an improved partnership,” Liliyana said.

During their Indonesia Open matches, it was not a rare sight to see Liliyana giving instructions to Tontowi on court, amid the roar of thousands of local spectators.

“Towi and Nova are different in character. With Nova, in silence we understand each other, while with Towi, we prefer to talk things through,” Liliyana said.

“I hope Towi understands that whenever I shout at him on the court it is just because it is my nature to talk loudly as I come from a family of Manadonese,” Liliyana said.

“I’m aware I’m not perfect either. I’m always open to his advice as well. Although I’m his senior, on the court, we are equal,” she added.

Tontowi said he regarded Liliyana’s loudness as something positive.

“At first, I felt a bit awkward with the way she talked to me, but now it doesn’t bother me. I just absorb as much experience as she can transfer.”

“I will continue to improve my best play so that she won’t be mad at me all the time,” Tontowi said.

Tontowi was born in Purwokerto, Central Java and joined the prominent badminton club Djarum in Kudus in 2005. At a towering 179 centimeters, Tontowi has displayed world-class badminton skills, including powerful smashes and dangerous moves at the net.

Liliyana was born in North Sulawesi and said she set her heart to be a serious badminton player at the age of 12 when she left Manado to join the Tangkas badminton club in Jakarta.

Despite his jokes on Liliyana’s demeanor, Tontowi acknowledged that emotion management was something he needed to master when battling high-pressure opponents such as world top pair Zhang and Zhao.

The pair acknowledged that “x-factors” such as the calls of the line-judge at the Istora Senayan had disturbed their concentration and eventually contributed to their failure to be crowned as home-ground champions.

And now, as the hype of the Indonesia Open has ended and no other high-level tournament in the way before the World Champioships, the pair have one month to prepare their best form for the worlds.

The self-proclaimed fan of Nova, Tontowi had always expressed that his greatest dream would be winning the Olympics and reaching the world number one status.

This year could be his year with Liliyana.

In mixed doubles, Indonesia has only won the world champion title three times. The first time was in 1980 when now-national doubles coach Christian Hadinata and Imelda Wiguna won.

Thier victory was repeated 25 years later, when Liliyana and Nova won. After Liliyana and Nova recaptured their second world champion title in Kuala Lumpur in 2007, Indonesia has yet to receive anymore world championships.

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