Problem Threatening Gregoria To Appear At The 2022 Asian Games Hangzhou

Women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung. (Photo: Doc. PBSI)

JAKARTA The problem with the knee can interfere with the women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung appearing at the 2022 Asian Games Hangzhou which starts rolling this month.

This knee problem overshadowed Gregoria during the match against Akane Yamaguchi in the semifinals of the Hong Kong Open 2023.

He then lost dramatically three games.

"Hopefully my knee injury doesn't get serious and can continue to improve ahead of the Asian Games. While returning to training to reduce my mistakes in recent tournaments," he said.

Gregoria had previously felt problems with this knee before appearing at the China Open 2023 yesterday.

He even experienced the same problem when he appeared in the world championship before that.

Despite having problems, Gregoria was able to put up a fierce fight against Akane. He had led the first game before losing.

He then secured the second set which ended so dramatically.

Unfortunately, the 24-year-old badminton player's resistance in the third game ended in a disappointing manner.

"I'm already four points ahead [in the first game], but I can't take advantage of it well, plus I have focused too long on thinking about the opponent chasing when my focus should be on how to get more points when the opponent gets points," said Gregoria.

"In the third game it was the same, I lost points very quickly at 14-14 straight 14-18. It was my biggest mistake in this match," said Gregoria.

He explained, to fight players at the top level like Akane, he needed extra concentration. Not only that, but mistakes themselves also need to be minimized.

"Learning for me not to be easily blank because when fighting high-level players like Akane, how can I not only think about how to get points but also how to minimize my own mistakes," he said.

This defeat made Gregoria quite disappointed. The reason is, he feels he can get better results.

"I decided with the coach to play here because I felt I could still [to the final]. So because I was committed to going down, I wanted to give my maximum even with a knee condition that was not 100% yet," he said.

"I maximized training time in China yesterday to prepare myself as well as possible. I think in the Race to Olympics period it is also important for every point in every tournament I participate in," he added.