For The first time! Gregoria Mariska Tunjung Passes to the Quarterfinals of the Indonesia Masters

Indonesian women's singles, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung. (Photo: Twitter @INABadminton)

JAKARTA - Gregoria Mariska Tunjung has successfully reached the last eight of the 2023 Indonesia Masters. This is the first time the 2017 world junior champion has reached the quarter-finals since her debut at this event in 2016.

The athlete from Wonogiri won a ticket to the quarter-finals after defeating the Chinese representative, He Bing Jiao. He won two straight games 21-19 and 21-17 at the Istora Senayan Stadium, Jakarta, Thursday, January 26 2023.

"Actually, the two of them played quite evenly. It was only profitable for me that at some critical points the opponent made more mistakes himself," said Gregoria at a post-match press conference.

This is Gregoria's second win over He Bing Jiao from their five meetings. Previously, Gregoria's only victory over Bing Jiao came from the Malaysia Open two weeks ago.

It's a shame that Gregoria's steps were not followed by Putri Kusuma Wardani. Putri KW's journey actually stopped in the second half. This 20-year-old badminton player picked up the suitcase after losing three games at the hands of world number two An Se Young.

This defeat was the fourth suffered by the Princess from the Korean women's singles. Previously, Putri was recorded as giving up on An Se-young when they met at the 2016 Sunrise Junior Grand Prix, 2017 Korea Junior Badminton Championship, and 2018 Indonesia International Challenge.

Putri said that even though she lost, she learned a lot from her opponent. He considered that as a top player, An Se-young was considered to be very mature mentally.

"He played very calmly and his quality was really good. By playing against him, I know how he plays because the others seem to have a really hard time against him," said Putri.

Before Gregoria, Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva had secured the first quarter-final ticket for Indonesia. This pair qualified after defeating Hu Ling Fang/Lin Xiao Min from Chinese Taipei.

Meanwhile, the men's doubles, Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani, had to lift their luggage first. They were defeated by the Chinese pair, Hi Ji Ting/Zhou Hao Dong.

Men's singles Anthony Sinisuka Ginting was also stuck in the second round after losing to Shi Yuqi. The owner of the bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics had to suffer the seventh defeat out of eight meetings with the Chinese representative.