Liliyana Natsir is truly the queen of doubles. She led partner Tontowi Ahmad to his second Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Championships mixed-doubles title, while she earned it for the fourth time early on Monday Jakarta time.

Scheduled as the last finals competitors at the Emirates Arena in Glasgow, the United Kingdom, Liliyana and Tontowi, the 2016 Olympics gold medalists, entered the arena showing no signs of weakness.

The world eight-ranked Indonesians seemed to enjoy every bit of their grand entrance, smiling at and greeting the audience as they headed to the court, where they bested world number one Chinese pair Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen in a rubber match.

The Indonesians entered the match unfazed by the mental game.

“We came here without even thinking about winning a second title. We just wanted to play and follow our coaches’ direction — although we were a bit shaky in the first game,” the 31-year-old Liliyana said after defeating the Chinese pair 15-21, 21-16, 21-15 in the finals as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org.

The 2017 World Champions started the match slow, allowing Siwei and Qingchen, the latter of whom won the 2017 title in the women’s doubles with Jia Yifan, to show their prowess in speed and power.

The Indonesian side were not shaken. In the second game and onward, Liliyana, backed strongly by an agile Tontowi, let loose the court vision and tactical awareness that has earned her the reputation as a top player in the sport.

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