Indonesia’s Olympians Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan brought home their first men’s doubles title this year at the Australia Open GP Gold badminton tournament in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday
ndonesia’s Olympians Markis Kido and Hendra Setiawan brought home their first men’s doubles title this year at the Australia Open GP Gold badminton tournament in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday.
World No. 12 seeds Markis and Hendra upset world No. 10 seeds Chieh Min Fang and Sheng Mu Lee of Taiwan 21-16, 21-15 in their final round.
“It means a lot to us because this is our first success this year,” said Hendra after the match as quoted by Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) website, pb-pbsi.org.
Markis and Hendra controlled almost the whole match, not handing Fang and Lee any chances to get in the game. Markis produced strong and accurate smashes that Taiwanese pair found difficult to handle.
“We didn’t predict that we could win quite so easy. We thought we would be battling a tough pair,” said Markis.
The pair, who won gold at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, were the only Indonesian shuttlers to reach a final at the US$120,000 event.
Other Indonesians Angga Pratama and Rian Agung Saputra were stopped by their seniors Markis and Hendra, while men’s singles competitor Simon Santoso was beaten by Jin Chen of China in Saturday’s semifinals.
Hendra hoped that the victory would motivate the pair to play their best in the Thomas Cup finals, which will be held next month in Wuhan, China.
On other courts, Hung Ling Chen and Wen Hsing Cheng of Taiwan won the mixed doubles title after knocking out Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh of Malaysia 22-20, 12-21, 23-21.
Unseeded Li Han of China grabbed the women’s singles title after upsetting fifth-seed Youn Joon Bae of South Korea 21-13, 21-14.
Ying Luo and Yu Luo of China in the women’s doubles finished as winners following their 12-21, 21-18, 21-17 domination of Wen Hsing Cheng and Yu Chin Chien of Taiwan.
In the men’s singles, top-seed Jin Chen of China outclassed fourth-seed Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam 21-11, 21-12 to seal the title.
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