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Marcus, Kevin eye 2019 world championships title
Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (left) - Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (Courtesy of PBSI)Moving on after the unlikely early exit from the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals, world number one pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia will make the World Championships title their priority in 2019
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Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (left) - Marcus Fernaldi Gideon (Courtesy of PBSI)
Moving on after the unlikely early exit from the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals, world number one pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo of Indonesia will make the World Championships title their priority in 2019.
Marcus and Kevin, who are affectionately nicknamed “Minions” by their fans, had to quit early from the season-ending tournament on Friday after Marcus sprained a neck muscle. The withdrawal hindered the 2017 champions from retaining the men’s doubles title.
Learning his lesson, Marcus said he did not want to push himself too hard when it comes to fitness as it might jeopardize his career.
“I decided to call it a day and take care of myself. Besides, we’ll have a busy schedule next year,” Marcus said Sunday as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org.
Marcus, who with Kevin received their second BWF Best Male Player of The Year for 2018 season, thought cold weather and heavy shuttlecocks had contributed to his injury when playing the tournament’s opener on Wednesday.
Although failing to keep the world tour finals title, Marcus and Kevin were proud of their achievements throughout the year.
“We won nine titles this year,” said Marcus, referring to eight titles from the BWF tournament and one from the Asian Games. “We bettered our accomplishments last year, which was seven [BWF tournament] titles.
“Next, we’re planning to win the 2019 world championships title and hopefully we’ll be able to make amends for this year’s failure by winning the 2019 world tour finals,” he added.
Indonesia had no good news in the 2018 finals as no Indonesians advanced to the semifinals in Guangzhou, China.
It showed that the selected shuttlers were off their game in the season-ending tournament, 1992 Olympic gold medalist Susy Susanti said Sunday.
Indonesian shuttlers secured six spots in the world tour finals, which only invited eight top players from the Road to Guangzhou Ranking to fight for US$1.5 million in prize money.
“We didn’t do well; the players underperformed. Our favorites, Marcus and Kevin, were troubled by the injury. Nevertheless, injuries do happen in any tournament,” said Susy, who heads sports development division in the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI).
Before withdrawing, Marcus and Kevin collected one win and one loss.
Five other spots were filled by veterans Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, also in the men’s doubles category, Tommy Sugiarto and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in men’s singles, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles as well as Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in mixed doubles.
They were all defeated in the group stage.
Ahsan and Hendra, Tommy, as well as Hafiz and Gloria, only produced one win respectively. Meanwhile, Anthony, as well as Greysia and Apriyani, won none of their matches.
