Staying true to his pattern throughout the game has given Tommy Sugiarto his first win at the 2018 Badminton World Federation (BWF) Tour Final in Guangzhou, China, as he outclassed youngster Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand in their Group B men’s singles opener on Wednesday.

The 30-year-old shuttler muffled the power of Kantaphon 21-18, 18-21, 21-11 as the Thai showed resistance during the strength-consuming match that lasted for one hour and 29 minutes.

Winning the first game 21-18, Tommy almost closed the match in straight games as he was able to equalize Kantaphon until the score of 18 all.

Tommy, who stayed patient by applying long rallies in the second game with long lobs and good ball placement, failed to close as he lost the next three points because of his unforced errors. Kantaphon forced a rubber game with a lead 21-18 in the second game.

Tommy, son of Indonesian shuttler legend Icuk Sugiarto, tried to change his pace in the deciding by speeding up the game and attacking his opponent more. The strategy was successful as he led big 13-5 before closing the match 21-11.

With this result, Tommy claims second place in the group’s leaderboards, trailing Japan’s Kento Momota who secured his first win against Sameer Verma of India.

Tommy is to play against Sherma in Thursday’s match and if he can secure the victory, it will increase the world No. 10’s chance to go to the semifinals.

Tommy’s success was followed by world No. 1 pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon in men’s doubles as they passed their first obstacle in the tournament.

In the Group A match, Kevin and Marcus, who were just named the BWF Male Players of the Year, overcame Danes Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen’s fight-off in the three-game match with 20-22, 21-17, 21-13.

Kevin and Marcus are to face their arch enemies, Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen of China, in the next match. On paper, Thursday’s match is supposed to be won by the Indonesians as they lead 8-1 in the head-to-head duel against the Chinese pair.

The country’s mixed doubles Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja made a good comeback in the deciding game to save themselves from a loss against second seed Yuta Watanabe and Arisa Higashino of Japan.

In the thrilling deciding game, Hafiz and Gloria got out of a critical situation after being behind 16-18 before winning the next five points and securing their first victory in Group B mixed doubles at 21-18, 16-21 and 21-18.

A good defense and smart placement of the shuttle were the keys to Hafiz and Gloria’s approach in stunning the Japanese world No. 3 pair.

Unfortunately, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu in women’s doubles, as well as Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in men’s doubles, failed to follow suit with their compatriots as they lost their openers.

Greysia and Apriani were beaten by Japan’s Misaki Matsutomo and Ayaka Takahashi 21-11, 21-16, while Hendra and Ahsan surrendered to another Japanese pair, Yuta Watanabe and Hiroyuki Endo, by 21-4, 21-18.

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