Singapore Open 2024: Gregoria Can't Break Bad Record Against An Se Young

Women's singles badminton player Gregoria Mariska Tunjung when appearing in the semifinals of the Singapore Open 2024/DOK. PBSI

JAKARTA Indonesian women's singles, Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, still cannot break her bad record against South Korean women's singles, An Se Young.

Gregoria again lost against the world number one badminton player when the two met in the semifinals of the Singapore Open 2024 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, Saturday, June 1 afternoon WIB.

In that duel, Gregoria immediately gave up two straight games 14-21 and 21-23 even though she had led the second game. "My game was not satisfied because I saw an opportunity to get more especially in the second game, but unfortunately I couldn't take advantage of the pretty convincing leading position earlier," said Gregoria.

Gregoria previously did have the desire to meet An Se Young at least in the remainder tournament before the 2024 Paris Olympics in the middle of this year.

An Young, who he has never defeated, is one of the biggest challenges if later they meet in the four-year multi-pronged grand event.

"Only overall I have the pleasure of being able to meet An Se Young today," said the badminton player from Wonogiri.

This semifinal match in Singapore is the seventh meeting between the two players. Of the six clashes before this Gregoria was also unable to beat An Se Young.

From that streak of defeats, Gregoria was recorded as having given up five straight games and only playing rubber games in the remaining two matches.

"I think in this tournament, An Se Young has started to return to his best performance. With the speed he has, he looks better than ever. As a friend, I'm happy with his improvement ahead of the Olympics," Gregria said.

Gregoria is one of two Indonesian representatives who broke into the semifinals of the tournament. One other representative is Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, who did not play when this news was written.