Ahsan-Hendra Failed To Defend WTF Champion Title, Submitted From The Chinese Pair

Ahsan-Hendra (Source: Antara)

JAKARTA - Men's doubles Hendra Setiawan / Mohammad Ahsan, Indonesia's sole representative in the 2020 BWF World Tour Finals final, failed to defend the title. Both were defeated by Lee Yang / Wang Chi-Lin from Taiwan in a match which took place at Impact Arena Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, January 31.

The pair nicknamed The Daddies, bowed in two straight games 17-21, 21-23 after struggling for 37 minutes, as reported by the official BWF website.

In the opening game, Hendra / Ahsan immediately came under pressure from Lee / Wang. Although they had time to do a tight defense and block the opponent's smash, the intensive Lee / Wang attacks made them lag behind.

When the score was 10-14 behind, the men's doubles world number two was able to catch up with their point deficit until they finally leveled the score 14-14.

But the situation immediately changed when Lee / Wang stepped up the game and returned to lead until the first game ended 21-17 with the Taiwanese pair leading the way.

A fierce battle occurred in the second game when the two partners continued to play attacks with a fast rhythm which resulted in the scores chasing each other until before the first interval ended.

Hendra / Ahsan who had the lead but lost six consecutive points to let their opponents lead 13-10. Although Lee / Wang started to regain their rhythm, Hendra / Ahsan were able to force the score to a 16-16 draw.

Things returned to the original interval and the two partners were again involved in a tiring battle and long rally. One by one, they collect points to reach match points.

Even though Hendra / Ahsan tried to steal a point, the defense formed by Lee / Yang was difficult to penetrate and actually stole the advantage. The second game ended with a score of 23-21 for the Taiwanese men's doubles.

It was Hendra / Ahsan's second loss to Lee Wang in January after the Taiwanese pair beat The Daddies in the second Thailand Open series last week.

However, in the overall meeting record, Hendra / Ahsan were still ahead with a 6-4 victory.

Hendra / Ahsan recorded the title at WTF 2019, after beating the Japanese men's doubles Hiroyuki Endo / Yuta Watanabe with two straight games, which at that time the match took place in Guangzhou, China.