JAKARTA - The men's doubles Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri passed the first round of the Badminton Asia Championship (BAC) or the 2026 Asian Badminton Championship and will face the host representative China in the second round.
The fifth seeded pair secured their ticket after locking an easy victory over Dev Ayyappan/Dhiren Ayyappan (United Arab Emirates) in a straight two-game match 21-12 and 21-9 on Wednesday, April 8, 2026.
"First of all, thank God for the smooth day today. It's also nice after All England, about a month, we're back on the court to compete," said Fajar in a statement received.
Fajar/Fikri appeared dominant in this match even though they were challenged at the beginning of the second game. They were behind before the interval, but after that their point rate flowed very smoothly.
In the first game, the opponent pair was ahead 3-2, but Fajar/Fikri immediately scored three consecutive points and dominated afterwards. Then at the beginning of the second game they were 0-3, but immediately reacted quickly to reverse the momentum.
"In the last match, we wanted to adjust the field conditions because the field conditions are also different from training, the atmosphere, and we were playing more how to get used to it first," said Fajar.
The pair of Chen Bo Yang/Liu Yi will be the test of Fajar/Fikri in the second round. The representative of the Bamboo Curtain Country managed to pass the first round of this tournament by eliminating the pair of Takumi Nomura/Yuichi Shimogami from Japan.
Chen/Liu were the finalists of this tournament last year. At that time they had to be content with taking the second podium after losing to the Malaysian pair, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik.
In addition to Fajar/Fikri, the second round tickets were also obtained by the pair Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani. They will then meet the pair Fang Chih Lee/Fang Jen Lee from China Taipei.
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