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Greysia Polii wins first home championship at Indonesia Masters

Proud victory: Indonesian women’s doubles pair Greysia Polii (right) and Apriyani Rahayu celebrate after they beat Danish pair Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen during the 2020 Daihatsu Indonesia Masters final match at Istora Senayan indoor stadium in Jakarta on Sunday

Ramadani Saputra (The Jakarta Post)
Jakarta
Mon, January 20, 2020

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Greysia Polii wins first home championship at Indonesia Masters

P

roud victory: Indonesian women’s doubles pair Greysia Polii (right) and Apriyani Rahayu celebrate after they beat Danish pair Maiken Fruergaard and Sara Thygesen during the 2020 Daihatsu Indonesia Masters final match at Istora Senayan indoor stadium in Jakarta on Sunday. Greysia and Apriyani won 18-21, 21-11, 23-11. (JP/Seto Wardhana)

Sunday's final at the 2020 Indonesia Masters at Istora Senayan indoor stadium was a historic day for Indonesian shuttler Greysia Polii as she finally managed to secure victory in front of a home crowd after years of attempts.

The 32-year-old and her partner Apriyani Rahayu clinched the women’s doubles’ title after triumphing in a thrilling match against Danes Sara Thygesen and Maiken Fruergaard.

In a three-game thriller — easily the match of the day — the Greysia/Apriyani pair fought hard for 80 minutes before securing the title. The Danes, who came to the court with confidence after beating two top Japanese pairs on the way to the final, pressured the Indonesian pair throughout the match in spite of the crowd’s full support of Apriyani and Greysia.

The victory — 18-21, 21-11, 23-21 — which was preceded by two match points for the Danes, was marked by tears of joy from Apriyani and tears of sorrow from Thygesen.

“We applaud them [the Danish pair] as they played very well. They really enjoyed the game. And we were pressured during the first game. We tried to take to the positive attitude shown by the Danes by enjoying the games more and turning the situation around in the later games,” Greysia said after match.

“Reflecting on what happened last year — when we hit our lowest point — this result is unbelievable,” Apriyani added.

Despite the loss, the Danish pair achieved their best result so far by reaching the finals at a top-level tournament.

“I think the main reason we’ve been playing so well this week is that we’ve had more confidence and thus could relax a bit more. We tried to trust ourselves and be brave on the court. We trust ourselves and our skills,” Fruergaard said.

In another match, Indonesian Anthony Sinisuka Ginting, who played in the men’s singles category, secured a victory after one hour and 11 minutes, winning 17-21, 21-15, 21-9 against world number four Anders Antonsen of Denmark.

On the other hand, it seems that the "Daddies", Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, are still unable to beat their juniors, the "Minions", Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon.

Sunday's showdown, which ended in a 21-15, 21-16 victory for the Kevin/Marcus pair, was the 10th loss in a row for the Daddies against their juniors in a total of 13 encounters.

"We pressured them from the beginning [of the game]. We tried to be consistent so they couldn't escape our pressure," Kevin said.

"They played so well because they have complete skills compared to other pairs and they are the best now. Our speed and power could not equal them," Hendra said, applauding his juniors’ capabilities.

In the women's singles, Thai star Ratchanok Intanon dashed Spaniard Carolina Marin's hopes of winning a victory postponed from last year. In the 2019 competition, Marin reached the final but suffered an unfortunate injury while playing against India's Saina Nehwal.

With better play at the front line than her opponent, Ratchanok managed to control the game, applying her attacking strategy to wear Marin down. She won 21-19, 11-21, 21-18.

"I have to control myself. I feel like if I can beat myself, then I can beat the opponent," Ratchanok said.

The world number one in mixed doubles, the Zheng Siwei/Huang Ya Qiong pair of China, did not have any trouble defending their titles at the Indonesia Masters after opponents Wang Yi Lyu and Huang Dong Ping struggled to perform at the final. Huang was not 100 percent fit to play the final round.

Zheng and Huang, who won the title last year after defeating Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad in Liliyana’s farewell match, bagged the victory in a straight 21-9, 21-9 match.

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