TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Jonatan Christie wins Australia Open title
Jonatan Christie (JP/Iqbal Yuwansyah)Indonesian shuttler Jonatan Christie defeated counterpart Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in an all Indonesian final at the Australia Open 2019 on Sunday with 21-17, 13-21 and 21-14, thus bagging one trophy for the Indonesian team
Change Size
Jonatan Christie (JP/Iqbal Yuwansyah)
Indonesian shuttler Jonatan Christie defeated counterpart Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in an all Indonesian final at the Australia Open 2019 on Sunday with 21-17, 13-21 and 21-14, thus bagging one trophy for the Indonesian team.
Jonatan was dominant throughout the first game even though Anthony was eager to catch up. The second game was a totally different story, however. Anthony turned the tables as he left Jonatan behind and closed the second game with victory, as reported by tribunnews.com on Sunday.
Both players were rejuvenated for the third game. It was tight at the beginning and depicted vividly the two ambitious souls. Both Jonatan and Anthony performed their best, smashing hits and implementing defense strategies.
Jonatan finally distanced himself by seven points from Anthony before closing the final match in his favor and thus bagged the victory. Jonatan increased his points significantly, making him look good in his quest for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics qualifiers and the 2019 SEA Games in Manila at the end of this year.
Jonatan, a 2018 Asian Games gold medalist, advanced to the final round after defeating Chou Tien Chen of Taipei in the semis with rubbers of 22-20, 13-21 and 21-16 on Saturday.
Coach Hendry Saputra earlier told detik.com that both players shared similar strong points and therefore both of them had the same opportunity to win.
“Both Jonatan and Anthony have similar strengths and weaknesses,” he said as reported by detik.com.
Indonesia sent three representatives to the Australia Open this year. However, the mixed doubles’ pair of Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti failed to follow that victorious path as they bowed out to their Chinese opponents Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping with 21-15 and 21-8.
This has been the Indonesian mixed doubles’ fifth defeat to the Chinese pair. Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping also defeated them in the India Open 2019 and three other tournaments in 2018, namely the Hong Kong, China and France Opens.
Assistant to the mixed doubles’ coach Nova Widianto had earlier assessed that from a skill perspective, the Praveen and Melati pair had all the resources to keep up or even steal a victory from their opponent.
“The key is to stay calm and significantly reduce self-errors during the match,” he said.
However, he also realized that Praveen and Melati had never won a battle against the Chinese pair and this was a psychological burden.
Besides securing the mixed doubles’ title, China stole another victory from its women singles category where Chen Yufei defeated Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 21-15 and 21-3.
The men’s doubles’ title was won by the South Koreans pair of Ko Sung-hyun and Shin Baek-cheol after defeating the first-seeded pair of Takeshi Komura and Keigo Sonoda of Japan 21-11 and 21-17. Japan’s shuttlers, however, saved face by securing the women’s doubles’ title through the pair of Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota who defeated their Chinese opponents Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan 21-10 and 21-16.
