JAKARTA - Men's singles badminton player Jonatan Christie managed to defeat Yushi Tanaka from Japan to get a ticket to the 2026 India Open quarterfinal.
Jonatan, who is the third seed in this tournament, qualified for the last eight after a straight two-game match 21-15 and 21-19 at the Indira Gandhi Sports Complex, on Thursday, January 15, 2026.
"It's definitely not easy today because the last time I lost. Yesterday, after looking at the game again, my team and I felt that Tanaka's movements and the way he played were actually better than other Japanese players," said Jonatan in a statement.
In this match, Jonatan was forced to rise several times to catch up. He also had to accept the fact that his finger was injured and bleeding until the end of the match.
In addition, Jonatan and other badminton players also have to face cold weather that is quite disturbing.
"Because it's so cold here, so you have to warm up early, warm up more. These two days I did this so that when I got on the field I was really ready," said Jonatan.
In the quarterfinal round, Jonatan will meet French men's singles shuttler Christo Popov, who eliminated host singles Kidambi Srikanth.
Jonatan has a less good record against the fifth seed. In the two previous clashes at the China Open and BWF World Tour Finals 2025, he lost in all three games.
"He's a good player, a left-handed player. Left players usually have their own advantages. You have to be more prepared and you have to be ready to get tired because he's not easy to die, not easy to kill either," said Jojo.
Indonesia has three representatives who are fighting in the second round of the 2026 India Open. The other two who have not played are Putri Kusuma Wardani and Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
