Debby Susanto (Courtesy of PBSI)

The BWF Indonesia Masters brings not one but two farewells this year as, besides Liliyana Natsir, former world number two mixed-doubles shuttler Debby Susanto also plans to hang up her racket for good.

Debby, the 2016 All England champion with former partner Praveen Jordan, has decided to bid goodbye to the sport that had raised her name to the international limelight.

Her performance alongside Ronald Alexander in the first round of the tournament on Tuesday evening was Debby’s last attempt at winning another match.

Unfortunately, Debby was unable to end her career in sweet victory as she and her partner bowed down to Mark Lamsfuss and Isabel Herttrich of Germany 21-15, 21-13 in just 33 minutes.

Debby conceded that she was disappointed with the result because she and Praveen had had a good track record over the German pair.

“[Ronald and I] failed to play out our game plan. And there was a lot of miscommunication in the second game. Actually, [our opponents] didn’t produce difficult shots at all,” Debby said after the match.

The Palembang-born 29-year-old said that by end of the month, she would submit her resignation letter to the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI). Afterwards, she plans to get away from the sport and spend more time with husband Haptiwan Daya, whom she married in 2017.

Debby, who has played badminton from a young age and joined the national training camp in 2009, said she was ready to build a family with Haptiwan, hinting that they plan to have children.

“I am married, but I haven’t been home a lot. I want to do what married couples do. I also want to take care of my parents, too, as I have frequently been away from them since I was a child. I want to have some quality time with my family,” she added.

Commenting on her overlapping career with Liliyana, who has achieved amazing success in the mixed doubles category, Debby acknowledged that the 2016 Olympic gold medalist had been her toughest opponent, crediting her as a positive role model for women in badminton.

“Liliyana is the best player in the front line; it was difficult to beat her. She has great skills, but she works hard and that makes it hard to beat her,” she said as quoted by bwfbadminton.com, adding that China’s Zhao Yunlei was another tough opponent.

While Debby exited the tournament early, Liliyana is still on track to securing her swan song.

She and long-time partner Tontowi Ahmad have knocked out Indians Reddy N. Sikky and Pranaav Jerry Chopra 21-15, 21-15 to face compatriots Hafiz Faizal and Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja in the second round on Thursday.

In the women’s singles category, Fitriani continued her positive trend by progressing to the second round after exacting revenge on Danish Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt, who defeated her in the Taiwan Open last year, with a 21-16, 21-14 victory on Wednesday.

Fitriani, who won the Thailand Masters two weeks ago, said the key to the win was trusting herself more and doing her best to enjoy the match. However, the 20-year-old noticed that she had to work more on her serve, which had cost her too many unforced errors in Wednesday’s bout.

Meanwhile, Kjaerfeldt conceded that she had not been 100 percent on the court and applauded her opponent for playing very well.

“Fitriani is in good shape at the moment. After winning Thailand [Masters], maybe she [gained] a lot of confidence,” she told The Jakarta Post.

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