INDONESIA MASTERS 2019 R32 – Kim/Lee and Polii/Rahayu advance

Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu bounced back from a troublesome first game to advance at the Indonesia Masters, while Korea saw 2 of 3 pairs into the men’s doubles second round.

Story: Naomi Indartiningrum and Sulistianing Ambarwati , Badzine Correspondents live in Jakarta
Photos: Raphael Sachetat  / Badmintonphoto (live)

Polii/Rahayu saved one place for women’s doubles round of 16

A tight score occurred in the beginning of the first game between Greysia Polii / Apriyani Rahayu and Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva.  The 4th-seeded Indonesian pair were left behind int the score in the early part of the first game.  The Bulgarian pair even reached game point first at 20-19, but then Polii/Rahayu managed to battle back and get the first game by 22-20.

“As we know that they had great defense and liked to play lift and smash, at first we were influenced by their tactics,” Polii explained.

However, the Malaysia Masters women’s doubles runners-up were able to play their performance and use their strength to beat the opponents in the second game.  The faster second game was played without the tight score and ended 21-15 in favour of the home pair.

“We had known since the Malaysia Masters that we would meet our opponents this week, so we have prepared mentally and physically before competing here because we know that they favour the lifting and smashing style of playing.  Moreover, in this match we tried to implement what we have prepared,” Polii further explained after the match.

Lee Yong Dae makes outstanding return to Indonesia

Korean men’s double pair, Kim Gi Jung / Lee Yong Dae managed to defeat the veteran pair from Denmark, Mathias Boe / Carsten Mogensen.  Although the Danes had far more experience meeeting the Koreans with different partners previous meetings, both pairs played really carefully towards each other in this, only their second matchup with this new Korean configuration.

The score was very tight at the start of the first game.  Both pairs were still looking for chances and tried to apply their strategy.  After the first game interval, the Koreans began to succeed in implementing a defensive strategy and counter-attacking, which troubled Boe/Mogensen.  The first game closed with a score of 21-16.

Although in the previous meeting, in India, the 2012 Olympic silver medallists managed to win against the Korean pair, but today the Danes just couldn’t implement an attack strategy.  Instead, their younger opponents were even stronger in defense and counter-attack.  Finally, Kim/Lee managed to win the match, taking the second game 21-13.

“It’s always a good to win the very first match and today our defensive tactics worked very well,” said Lee.

“We have met so many times before.  Gi Jung and I already know their game very well as well as they know ours.  But today let me say that we were able to perform better than them especially with the defense while they were not really prepared for our defense,” he added.

At the next meeting, the Koreans will face young Chinese players, Han Chengkai / Zhou Haodong (pictured above).  Nor will the world #41 pair be alone in flying the Korean flag in the men’s doubles second round.  Their compatriots Choi Sol Gyu / Seo Seung Jae also made it to the next round.  They defeated the Japanese pair that had ousted both Korean pairs from their home Super 500 event last year, seeing off Takuro Hoki / Yugo Kobayashi with a score of 21-16 21-18.

Unfortunately this success was not followed by another Korean men’s doubles pair, Ko Sung Hyun / Shin Baek Cheol (pictured).  The 2014 World Champions failed to advance to the next round after being forced to admit the superiority of the current holders of the world title.  Li Junhui / Liu Yuchen won by a score of 21-16, 21-15.

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