INDONESIA OPEN 2018 Day 2 – Indonesia’s young guns rise

Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian / Muhammad Rian Ardianto managed to continue their journey in their home Indonesia Open after a brilliant win against Malaysia Open champions Kamura/Sonoda.

Story: Naomi Indartiningrum, Badzine Correspondent live in Jakarta
Photos: Yves Lacroix / Badmintonphoto (live)

Fajar Alfian / Muhammad Rian Ardianto (pictured) performed very aggressively from the beginning of their match against Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda.  But both pairs were implementing almost the same strategy, which relied a lot on drives and a fast tempo.

“Our strategy was to play with no-lift pattern,” said Ardianto after the match.  “We had to fight ahead with them. We had to be ready from the opening. We are very satisfied with this victory, because our opponents have just won at the Malaysia Open 2018 last week.”

This defeat is certainly very surprising given the Japanese pair’s success in Malaysia last week but for Kamura, he was satisfied with his performance nonetheless: “Even though we lost today, we still feel satisfied with our performance because we played our best during the match.  It’s just that our opponents’ performance was better and they were luckier than us.  I do not feel disappointed despite losing today.”

Alfian/Ardianto’s victory in the first half of this adds a row of men’s doubles name that advanced to the second round.  They successfully followed their more experienced team-mates Marcus Fernaldi Gideon / Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Ricky Karanda Suwardi / Angga Pratama who had earlier won their matches.

Overcoming difficulties, Zhang/Liu advance

Earlier in the day, World Champions Zhang Nan and Liu Cheng (pictured) also made it into the second round.  Despite some difficulty at the start of the match, the #3 seeds managed to overcome the resistance of the Indian pair, Manu Attri / Sumeeth B Reddy and won 21-17 in the decider.

“In the first game, we were not able to find our best performance,” said Zhang Nan after the match.  “We also were not able to run our strategy because we didn’t know the court conditions and it turns out to be very windy.

“We were trying to get back our performance and implement our strategy in the second and third games.  The match was still pretty tight but we managed to finish well.”

In the second round match, Liu / Zhang will face their compatriots Huang Kaixiang / Wang Yilyu.

Chen/Jia on track to defend the title

The world #2 pair, Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan (pictured) faced their own difficulties in the first round of the Indonesia Open 2018.  The 2017 World Champions had to struggle to conquer Korean representatives Chang Ye Na / Jung Kyung Eun with a three-game battle to ensure a second round ticket.

Having lost the first game, Chen/Jia successfully turned the situation by winning the next two games and won 13-21, 21-17, 21-17.

After the match both Jia Yifan and Chang Ye Na also admitted that the match in the first round is quite tough and difficult because they were still trying to find best pattern to play on a windy court.

“Today’s match was pretty tough.  We had to control the wind and the victory this time is incredible,” said Jia.

“We actually had a chance to win, leading halfway through the second game, but after that we played in a hurry and made a lot of mistakes because we could not control the shuttlecock,” said Chang Ye Na.

In addition, the physical factor also became one of the influential aspects of Chen Qingchen / Jia Yifan victory on that day.

“We are physical younger than them, so we can play faster than them,” Jia Yifan explained.

This victory presented a wide open opportunity for Chen and Jia to defend the Indonesia Open title they achieved last year. Will they successfully defend?

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