s expected, Indonesia’s world No. 1 badminton pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon has reached the finals of the All England Open, where they will face world No. 2 pair Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark in the perfect match-up on Sunday.
The duo are the only Indonesians to reach the final round, which will be held at Arena Birmingham in England.
Kevin and Marcus, who are on the hunt for a second consecutive All England title, earned their spot in the final after crushing world No. 6 pair Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding 21-11, 21-19 within 38 minutes in the semifinals.
Talking about the final battle, in which both sides are expected to deploy their most interesting tactics and techniques, Marcus said it would be a big match.
“Actually, it’d be an interesting final regardless of who the opponent was, because any of them would definitely try to defeat us,” said Marcus, who with Kevin has won a total of 12 titles at Super Series level over the past three years, in a statement.
“But worry not, we’re not planning to take the battle lightly either. We’ll do our best,” he added.
So far this year, Kevin and Marcus have collected two titles, namely the Indonesia Masters and the India Open.
Kevin and Marcus’ semifinals action was watched by National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro, who was on a work trip in London, as well as a group of Indonesian students, who are studying at a university in Scotland. The students took a seven-hour train journey from Scotland for the match.
The All England final will start at 7 p.m. Jakarta time and will be aired by KVision and Transvision.
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