Losing To Japan's Representative, Ahsan/Hendra: Focus On World Championship Preparations

JAKARTA - Unsatisfactory results must be accepted by Indonesian men's doubles, Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan in the last 32 of the Indonesia Open 2021. Their hopes to advance to the next round were dashed after they were defeated by Japanese representatives Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi.

Even though they lost, Ahsan/Hendra admitted that they were quite satisfied with their performance on the field. Therefore, instead of lamenting their failure, they chose to focus on preparing for the world championship.

"Yes, today we lost again. I just think today's game was better. Even though we lost, we have more or less met the pattern of the game", said Hendra as quoted from Badminton Indonesia.

“After this tournament, we continue to prepare for the World Championship. There are two weeks from now, we just maximize the preparation", he continued.

In the match that took place at the Bali International Convention Center, Nusa Dua, The Daddies finally surrendered to the Indonesia Masters champion. Through a three-game battle, Ahsan/Hendra lost with a score of 21-23, 21-15, 15-21.

Furthermore, Hendra did not want to find an excuse that this time's failure was due to a busy schedule. Because in this event with a total prize of 850 thousand US dollars, all players also feel the same way.

"If the schedule is tight, everyone also has a busy schedule. At least there must be two weeks of training for us before we are ready to compete", added Hendra.

This defeat made the Ahsan / Hendra pair record two failures when they met Hoki/Kobayashi. The reason is, during the last match at the Indonesia Masters 2021, they also lost to the Japanese duo in the round of 16.