JAKARTA - The men's doubles Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Mohammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani were unable to break their bad record against Ben Lane/Sean Vendy's pair, so they failed to get a ticket to the 2026 China Open quarterfinal.
Sabar/Reza, who are ranked as the sixth seed in the BWF Super 1000 event, failed to continue their journey after losing in two straight games 18-21 and 12-21 at the Changzhou Olympic Sports Centre on Thursday, July 23, 2026.
This defeat automatically extended Sabar/Reza's bad record against the British pair. From a total of five meetings in the competitive arena, they have never been able to come out as the winner of the match.
"I'm curious because I haven't been able to win from them in these five meetings. We will try again in the future," Sabar said in an official statement from the Indonesian Badminton Association (PBSI) Public Relations received after the match.
In this latest match, Sabar/Reza was only able to give resistance to the opponent's pair at the beginning of the second game. They briefly led 4-2 in the first game and then only narrowly ahead 6-5 in the second game.
Sabar admitted that the appearance of the opponent in this match was much more neat than the previous meeting. He assessed that they were able to control the rhythm of the game from the beginning, appear more disciplined in building attacks, and faster to flow into the front area.
"Today they are much safer to play, much more in control of the game. They also had a faster front to drop the ball than us. With the windy field conditions, they are good at controlling the speed of the shuttlecock when winning or losing wind," said Sabar.
In addition to not being able to get a win, this is also the third consecutive defeat in two games. The other two defeats in the two-game match were at the Japan Open last week and the Malaysia Open last year.
Meanwhile, the two defeats that could take place in the three-game match occurred in the semifinals of the 2021 Orleans Masters and the semifinals of the 2024 Swiss Open.
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