The Indonesian men’s doubles pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan, popularly known as “the Daddies”, have secured the 2019 BWF World Tour Finals championship title, defeating Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe 24-22, 21-19.

The Indonesians started their first game aggressively, taking the lead early. However, their Japanese opponents then showed their capabilities, turned the situation around and took the leading position in mid points.

The Ahsan-Hendra pair caught up at 15-15 and continued their lead until they reached 20-19. Despite being discouraged, their Japanese opponents put on their best and managed to level the score 20-20.

The game was then sealed by the Indonesian pair 24-22.

The second game’s early points were taken by the Japanese as Ahsan and Hendra seemed to be a bit out of breath. The second game was a blatant display of determination as both pairs were able to draw level with each other until the Indonesians won the second game 21-19.

This was the Ahsan-Hendra pair’s 11th final match this year and also the seventh encounter with the Endo-Watanabe pair. The Indonesians have won six out of the seven encounters with their Japanese opponents.

Beforehand, Anthony Sinisuka Ginting had to bow out to arch opponent Kento Momota of Japan in the men’s singles final match through rubbers 17-21, 21-17 and 21-14. Following the defeat, Anthony praised Momota as a worthy opponent.

“I went all out, showing all that I had but he is indeed a better shuttler. I’ll learn from my mistakes,” he said as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org on Sunday.

Anthony took the first game sealing the deal at 17-21 in his favor but Momota caught up and took the lead winning the second game. The final game was the crucial moment as Anthony’s focus was mainly disrupted from within.

Anthony admitted that he had failed to develop his playing strategy as he felt pain that originated from a blister on his foot. He said that he had been trying very hard to forget about his pain in earlier games but eventually he could not help but feel the pain disrupting his focus and agility.

“The pain was dominating and finally I couldn’t maintain my focus,” he said.

On the other side, Anthony went on, Momota had been impenetrable and he was very stable in orchestrating attack after attack. Momota’s defense, he added, was impeccable and his self-discipline had avoided him making mistakes, especially throughout the third game.

It was a turnaround for Anthony as he defeated Momota in the 2019 French Open quarterfinals last October.

Commenting on the match, Momota praised Anthony as a player who was able to improve his skills every time they met.

“He is the kind of player who always manages to improve in every encounter with me. A bright player who has a bright future ahead of him,” Momota said.

Beforehand, Momota also crushed Indonesian shuttler Jonathan Cristie in the qualifiers with straight set wins of 14-21 and 14-21. Jonathan acknowledged that there was still a gap between him and Momota in terms of playing strategy, both technically and mentally. He admitted to having followed Momota’s orchestration during the match. World number-one Momota, he went on, had been very calm but remained vigilant in anticipating his attacks.

“Momota was very classy and was able to orchestrate the whole match from the very beginning. He is an efficient and accurate player, knows exactly how and when to hit to cause massive damage to his opponent. Today, I learned a great deal from him,” Jonathan, ranked sixth in the world, said as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org.

Jonathan said he was disappointed with himself that he had failed to develop the right strategy to even keep up with Momota in the match. Jonathan promised that he would improve not only his skills and hitting techniques but also his physical endurance so he could overpower his opponent in a future match.

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