JAKARTA - Indonesian mixed doubles, Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto managed to advance to the semifinals of the Korea Open 2023. This certainty was obtained after they secured the victory over Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin.
Appearing at Jinnam Stadium on Friday, June 21 afternoon WIB, Fajar/Rian won easily over representatives of Malaysia. They only need 38 minutes to confirm points 21-9 and 23-21.
Appearing well in the first half, Fajar/Rian actually got resistance in the second half. At that time, Malaysian representatives had won 17-14, but fortunately Fajar/Rian was able to catch up and equalize at 18-18 points.
The closer the decisive figure, the score entered the match point. Luckily, the moment belonged to Fajar/Rian with a score of 20-19 and continued sweetly to ensure victory 23-21.
The slick result achieved by Fajar/Rian is not a coincidence. After the match the two said that the main key to overthrowing the Malaysian representative was in the record of their meeting.
Fajar/Rian had several meetings with Goh Sze Fei/Nur Izzuddin in different tournaments. This was then used as a moment for Indonesian representatives to read the opponent's pattern of play.
"We have met them many times so we already know about each other's strengths and weaknesses. So in the first game we were immediately ready with the pattern we wanted," Rian said in an official statement.
Despite appearing in the men's doubles number, Goh/Izzuddin separated last January but then paired again. The US Open 2023 last week was a sweet comeback moment because they managed to advance to the final.
The joining of Goh/Izzudin seems to be something Fajar/Rian is very wary of in this match.
"They just returned and were able to win last week in America, then here to the last eight is an extraordinary result," said Fajar.
"We are aware of their burning spirit. Not only in this tournament but also in the next tournaments," he continued.
Successfully defeating the representative of Malaysia who had just made a comeback to secure a place in the semifinals, in fact Fajar/Rian are still not satisfied with their own appearance and hope to be even better in tomorrow's match.
"Our guard is not optimal. We still make a lot of mistakes ourselves and a lot of punches are not right on touch. Hopefully tomorrow will be even better," Fajar concluded.
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