Jonathan Christie Wins Men's Singles Badminton Hong Kong Open 2023

Indonesian men's singles badminton player, Jonatan Christie. (Between/PBSI)

JAKARTA - The men's singles badminton player Jonatan Christie contributed the second title for Indonesia from the 2023 Hong Kong Open tournament after winning the final round against Kenta Nishimoto from Japan, Sunday, September 17.

In the match which took place in Kawloon, the fifth seed won the rubber game 12-21, 22-20, 21-18.

The title was also Jonathan's second win at the Super 500 event, after the 2023 Indonesia Masters in January.

Jonathan's game in the first game was less solid to face Kenta, who had a tight defense. Jonathan tries to change the pattern of the game but often experiences a deadlock.

The efforts of the Indonesian representatives by playing more patiently did not produce results. Kenta did not hesitate to catch passes away from Jonathan, which she managed to return.

After 21 minutes of competition, the first game could not be secured by Jonathan. Moreover, the moment of losing nine points in a row from 9-9 to 9-18 really hit Jonathan mentally.

The defense of the fifth seed player also wavered and was able to be tricked by Kenta easily before finally closing with a score of 12-21.

In the second game Jonathan's game still hasn't shown any significant progress. The only advantage he has achieved is a score of 7-4, after gaining three consecutive points over Kenta.

However, Kenta did not want to lose and took the advantage again after trying hard to reduce the difference with Indonesia's representatives. Thanks to Jonatan's hard efforts, he took over the advantage again.

Even though he was involved in the settings, Jonathan managed to keep his game until the second game ended with a 22-20 victory.

Jonathan went through a dramatic match in the third game, when he and Kenta were involved in chasing points from the start of the game.

The two of them continued to chase each other and equalize the score, and often changed strategies in order to outsmart the opponent's game.

Entering the end of the game when the score, Jonathan got two closing points easily due to the mistakes made by Kenta so that the score became 21-18. With this result, the Indonesian Badminton National Team has so far won two titles from the Hong Kong Open.

The first title was contributed by women's doubles Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, after defeating the Malaysian pair Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan with a score of 14-21, 24-22, 21-9.