MALAYSIA OPEN 2015 SF – Lone Indonesian survivors feeling confident

Badminton powerhouse Indonesia is down to a single survivor for the final round of the Maybank Malaysia Open Superseries Premier, which will see a repeat of the Asian Games men’s doubles final.

By Mior Muzaffar Mior Dahalan, Badzine Correspondent live in Kuala Lumpur.  Photos: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (live)

In the first men’s double semi-final, former World Champions and reigning Asian Games gold medallists Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan (pictured) made a mockery of their current position as the #8 men’s double pair by beating the World #2 pair from Denmark, Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen (pictured below) in three games.

Before this match, the Indonesians had an undefeated record against the Danish pair –a distinction they share with only one other active pair in world badminton – and they kept this record intact after today’s match.  Even though the Danish pair managed to plant seeds of doubt into the Indonesian pair’s play by stealing the second game, it seemed that the Indonesia pair always had the match in their clutches and indeed, they never let go and won it in 56 minutes.

“Although we had never beaten them before, that wasn’t at the back of our minds while playing today,” explained a dejected Mathias Boe after the match.  “They just played better than us and we knew they are a strong pair.

“Although Ahsan was playing with an injury, that didn’t give us any advantage at all.  We were just a bit tired today.”

The Indonesian pair were in a relaxed mood when they were asked about the match: “It is never easy against the Danish pair, we have to be prepared and confident in our game,” said Setiawan.

“My back injury is recovering and I’ll be ready for tomorrow’s final,” explained Ahsan about his injury.

On the prospect of becoming World Champions in their own backyard in Jakarta this year, Ahsan added, “We really want to do well in front of our fans and become World Champions in Jakarta.  We don’t feel the pressure playing in front of our home crowd, we look at it positively and want to use the home advantage as our motivation.”

The Indonesians’ opponents in the final will be Lee Yong Dae and Yoo Yeon Seong (pictured below).  The world #1 pair came through a nail-biter against Chinese Taipei’s Lee Sheng Mu and Tsai Chia Hsin.  They, too, are looking for their first title of the year and Yoo is in search of his first ever title on Malaysian soil.

Finals line-up
WD: Luo Ying / Luo Yu (CHN) [3] vs. Jang Ye Na / Jung Kyung Eun (KOR)
XD: Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei (CHN) [1] vs. Xu Chen / Ma Jin (CHN) [3]
MS: Chen Long (CHN) [1] vs. Lin Dan (CHN) [5]
WS: Li Xuerui (CHN) [1] vs. Carolina Marin (ESP) [6]
MD: Lee Yong Dae / Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR) [1] vs. Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan (INA) [4]

Click here for complete semi-final results