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Top players going ‘low’ to save Olympics spot
Uphill battle: Men’s doubles pair Fajar Alfian (left) and Muhammad Rian Ardianto pose for a photograph on the sidelines of the Yuzu Indonesia Masters 2019 presser held in Jakarta on Wednesday
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phill battle: Men’s doubles pair Fajar Alfian (left) and Muhammad Rian Ardianto pose for a photograph on the sidelines of the Yuzu Indonesia Masters 2019 presser held in Jakarta on Wednesday.(JP/Anggie Angela)
In their attempt to secure a spot at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Indonesian men’s doubles badminton pair Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto have decided to attend the Yuzu Indonesia Masters 2019, a low level tournament, to collect more points.
The pair, which is currently ranked seventh in the world, has been falling behind in the internal competition with their compatriots, world number one pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukomuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, as well as the world’s second-ranked pairing Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, since the qualifiers kicked off in April.
The regulations stipulate that each country can only send two pairs to Tokyo, and that those pairs should be ranked in the top eight when the qualification period ends on April 26 next year.
In several tournaments since the qualification period opened, Fajar and Rian have only managed to reach one semifinal at the World Championship in Basel, Switzerland, in August where they bowed out to the veteran duo Hendra and Ahsan, who eventually lifted their third World Championship trophy.
In the last tournament they entered at the 2019 Taiwan Open, which is one level above the upcoming Indonesia Master, earlier this month, the young guns’ journey ended in the quarterfinal after they were overpowered by the matured Danes Mathias Boe and Mads Conrad-Petersen in three games 21-16, 19-21 and 21-17.
Fajar and Rian will go to the Yuzu Indonesia Master as a top seed, with serious threats to their ambition to win the title mostly coming from the new combination of Chinese pairs Huang Kai Xiang and Liu Cheng as the sixth seed and Ou Xuan Yi and Zhang Nan as the seventh seed. Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan previously played together as a pair before separating in the middle of this year.
“With the top seed status, we must be optimistic [of winning the title]. Before going to Malang, we will play in China and Korea and we want to focus one by one,” Fajar told a press briefing on Wednesday.
“We already left behind our seniors [Ahsan and Hendra] since they won the New Zealand Open [at the beginning of the qualification period]. So we really want to catch up with the points of Ahsan and Hendra and also Marcus and Kevin,” he added.
Ahsan and Hendra have been very consistent with their performance since the qualification period was opened.
They have reached four finals of six tournaments they entered with two victories at the New Zealand Open and World Championship.
The Malang event is set to see 302 players from 15 countries taking part, with Indonesia deploying 139 athletes in five categories. The US$75,000 event will also be a stage for the juniors to showcase their talents, as the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) will give opportunities to the second-tier shuttlers.
PBSI achievement and development head Susy Susanti said Fajar and Rian were expected to show their consistency, looking at their achievements in the past several tournaments.
“This is a duty for Fajar and Rian to boost their confidence. They actually have what it takes but are still inconsistent,” she said.
Aside from the men’s doubles category, top players will also color the women’s doubles category as Chinese pairs world number seven Du Yue and Li Yin Hui and world number 13 Li Wen Mei and Zheng Yu are scheduled to take part in the Yuzu Indonesia Masters.
