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ndonesian men’s doubles pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukomuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon lost to Chinese arch rivals Hang Chengkai and Zhou Haodong in the French Open final in rubber sets of 23-21, 8-21 and 21-17.

It was a tight fight from the start as both pairs worked hard to beat each other in speed and strategy. The Chinese opponents managed to overpower Kevin and Marcus and closed with a score of 23-21 in the first game.

Kevin and Marcus bounced back in the second game by securing a score of 21-8. However, their lead was stolen as their Chinese opponents maintained their momentum until the end of the game to close with a second game score of 21-17.

This has been their second defeat as the pair of Hang Chengkai and Zhou Haodong defeated Kevin and Marcus 19-21, 21-11 and 17-21 at the 2018 China Open earlier this year.

To get into the finals, Kevin and Marcus had to defeat Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty of India in the semifinals. The Indonesian duo gained a victory in two straight games of 21-12 and 26-24.

The Indonesian shuttlers, despite their first game win, had to work hard to secure the second game as their opponents managed to close the gap to 21-20. Kevin and Marcus had to go the extra mile to reclaim the lead only minutes before the second game came to a close.

“The opponents showed us a totally different playing style in the second game. They tightened their defense and sped up their playing rhythm,” Kevin said.

Kevin and Marcus were the only Indonesian pair to get into the finals. Mixed doubles favorites Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Achmad had to surrender to Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan in the quarterfinals with a score of 16-21, 21-16, 18-21.

In 2017, Liliyana and Tontowi defeated Zheng Siwei and Chen Qingchen of China with a score of 22-20, 21-15 at the French Open.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian pair of Greysia and Apriani was defeated by Japanese opponents Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara in the semifinals with a score of 10-21, 8-21.

Greysia said the pair was under stress during the match.

“That is why our opponents were able to exploit our weaknesses and steal the podium from us,” Greysia said after the match as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org on Saturday.

“This has been a great disappointment, but we will evaluate and learn from our mistakes.”

Indonesian men’s single player Jonatan Christie had to surrender to Chen Long through rubber sets 18-21, 21-12, 16-21.

Commenting on his defeat, Jonatan acknowledged that he had high hopes of defeating Chen Long, but had learned that he needed to control his emotions better during matches.