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Tontowi-Liliyana closer to All England title hat trick
How sweet it is: Indonesian mixed doubles pair Liliyana Natsir (left rear) Tontowi Ahmad (right rear) return to Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-na, trouncing the South Koreans 21-13, 21-11 in the semifinals of the All England Super Series Premier 2014 at the National Indoor Arena in Birgmingham, UK, on Saturday
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How sweet it is: Indonesian mixed doubles pair Liliyana Natsir (left rear) Tontowi Ahmad (right rear) return to Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-na, trouncing the South Koreans 21-13, 21-11 in the semifinals of the All England Super Series Premier 2014 at the National Indoor Arena in Birgmingham, UK, on Saturday. (Courtesy of PBSI) (left rear) Tontowi Ahmad (right rear) return to Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-na, trouncing the South Koreans 21-13, 21-11 in the semifinals of the All England Super Series Premier 2014 at the National Indoor Arena in Birgmingham, UK, on Saturday. (Courtesy of PBSI)
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span class="inline inline-none">How sweet it is: Indonesian mixed doubles pair Liliyana Natsir (left rear) Tontowi Ahmad (right rear) return to Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-na, trouncing the South Koreans 21-13, 21-11 in the semifinals of the All England Super Series Premier 2014 at the National Indoor Arena in Birgmingham, UK, on Saturday. (Courtesy of PBSI)
A Chinese opposition will be the last hurdles to clear for Indonesia's mixed doubles pair Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir if they are to snatch the All-England title for third consecutive time.
The defending champions secured their ticket for the finals after easing past Ko Sung-hyun/Kim Ha-na of South Korea 21-13, 21-11 in the semifinal matches at the Birmingham Arena, London, on Saturday.
The second seeds will take on top seeds Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei, whose semifinal match against fellow Chinese Xu Chen/Ma Jin ended with the latter abandoning the game when the score reached 9-4 in the second game, according to tournamentsoftware.com.
In a match aired live on a local TV, Tontowi and Liliyana needed only 31 minutes to wrap up their match over their Korean opponents.
They also had little trouble when they met in the Open Super Series with the Indonesians winning 21-16, 21-13.
'We played our game, focused to win point by point. We did not let them take the attacking initiative from the start. They were playing into our game rhythm,' Tontowi said in a press release.
'We controlled the game from the start. I marshaled the front area so that Tontowi gained time to attack from the back,' Liliyana said.
Tontowi-Liliyana were indeed dominant throughout the match. In the second game, the Korean players, the eighth seeds in the tournament, trailed 3-11 and could only add eight points as they seemingly stood by and watched the Indonesian pair wrap up the match.
They said they were more prepared than in the quarterfinals, in which they were forced to play three games to defeat Danny Bawa Chrisnanta/Yu Yan Vanessa Neo of Singapore.
They are now looking to Sunday's finals when they will get the chance to square the meeting score and bring home the title for the third time.
They trail 4-5 on head-to-head record, with the Chinese winning their last match at the Denmark Open last October.
The Indonesian team is assured another ticket in the finals with top seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan making it all Indonesian-semifinal match against Markus Fernaldi Gideon/Markis Kido.
The winners will take on either Ko Sung-hyun/Shin Baek-cheol of South Korea or Hiroyuki Endo/Kenichi Hayakawa of Japan.
Indonesia has been denied title chances in the other three events ' men's and women's singles, and women's doubles ' after the players fell by the wayside before the semifinals.
