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Marcus, Kevin wrap up extraordinary year with Dubai Finals title
New legends: Indonesia's Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (right) and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon pose with their medals after winning the final of the men's doubles during the BWF Dubai World Superseries Finals on Sunday
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span class="inline inline-center">New legends: Indonesia's Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (right) and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon pose with their medals after winning the final of the men's doubles during the BWF Dubai World Superseries Finals on Sunday. The win was the 10th Superseries title for the Indonesians.(AFP/Giuseppe Cacace)
Indonesia’s world number one men’s doubles pair of Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo closed out their magnificent year with a BWF World Superseries Finals victory in Dubai on Sunday, their seventh title this year.
Marcus and Kevin outwitted the world number four pair of Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan of China in a quick 21-16, 21-15 win that was over in 39 minutes.
“It was indeed a special win for us — this was our second hat trick win so far and our seventh Superseries title in 2017.
“I didn’t really see it coming,” Kevin said in a statement.
The win set a new record in Indonesia’s men’s doubles history as the pair has collected a total of 10 Superseries titles, beating the legendary pairs of Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan, and Muhammad Ahsan and Hendra, who both won nine titles.
Marcus and Kevin were also awarded the Male Player of the Year by the Badminton World Federation prior to the Dubai tournament.
The pair, affectionately nicknamed the “Minions” because of their yellow-colored jerseys, began to reveal their potential when they were partnered at the Chinese Taipei Open Grand Prix tournament in 2015, where they finished runner-up to China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan.
The pair later won two Grand Prix titles at the Chinese Taipei Masters and the Malaysia Masters in 2015.
At higher level tournaments in 2016, Marcus and Kevin began racking up Superseries titles, with victories at the India Open, Australia Open and China Open.
The pair reached their peak in 2017, claiming victories at the prestigious All England Open, India Open, Malaysia Open, Japan Open, China Open, Hong Kong Open and, the latest, the Dubai Finals.
In other matches at the Dubai Finals, China’s world number one pair Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen took out the mixed doubles title after outclassing Hong Kong’s world number 10 duo of Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet, 21-15, 22-20.
Meanwhile, Japan’s Akane Yamaguchi defeated India’s Pusarla V. Sindhu to win the women’s singles title. Yamaguchi went the extra mile to beat Sindhu in a hard fought 15-21, 21-12, 21-19 match.
Indonesia sent three pairs to the Dubai Finals, including the mixed doubles duos of Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, and Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto.
The world number three pair of Tontowi and Liliyana were stopped in the semifinals by Zheng and Chen, preventing the 2017 World Championship winners from taking out the Dubai Finals title for the first time.
Meanwhile, Praveen and Debby, ranked sixth in the world, failed to even reach the knock-out stage in Dubai following poor performances in the round robin.
The 2016 All England champions lost all three matches in the group stage against Tang and Tse, Zheng and Chen as well as Kazuno and Kurihara.
The Dubai showdown was the last match for Praveen and Debby as a pair, as they are both set to be paired with younger partners in 2018.
