Ana/Tiwi Runner Up At Thailand Open 2024, Admits Losing Pressure To The Host

Indonesian Women's Doubles Febriana Dwi Puji Kusuma/Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi poses with a silver medal after leaving as runner-up for Thailand Open 2024 in Bangkok, Thailand

JAKARTA - Indonesian women's doubles, Febriana Dwi Puji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi, had to settle for leaving as runners-up at the Thailand Open 2024 Super 500 tournament, Bangkok, Thailand, Sunday, May 19. Ana/Tiwi gave up from the host's first seeded pair, Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai, in two straight games with identical scores 14-21, 14-21.

As the third seed, Ana/Tiwi admitted that they had difficulty getting out of the opponent's pressure. Even though they performed quite well throughout the tournament, they were unable to overcome the pressure in the final match. "From the start we were actually prepared to face this match. Only the opponent continued to press. We couldn't get out of pressure and couldn't play optimally," said Ana in a brief statement from PP PBSI.

Tiwi added that during the match they played too carefully, which the opponent used to attack and add points. This defeat extended their meeting record with the Thai pair to 0-3, after previously losing in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Asian Badminton Championship (BAC) and the last 16 of the 2023 World Badminton Championships.

"Unlike our neater performance yesterday, today we couldn't fight that pressure. We really had a hard time getting out of that pressure zone," said Tiwi. The pair who won the 2023 SEA Games gold medal in Cambodia also admitted that they were not satisfied with their performance in the final round.

"Even so, I am still grateful to be able to get to this point. However, we are still not satisfied. We have to continue to study even harder," added Ana. They also admitted that the Thai couple played better and had more experience, let alone appeared as hosts.

After this tournament, Ana/Tiwi will continue their journey on the BWF tour series in Southeast Asia, namely the Malaysia Masters 2024, which is also a Super 500 level tournament. After this we will continue the match to Malaysia Masters. With such a short time we will use it to restore conditions, and hopefully the results will be even better," Tiwi concluded.