JAKARTA - Men's singles badminton player Jonatan Christie secured a ticket to the last eight of the Badminton Asia Championship (BAC) or the 2026 Asian Badminton Championship to match his journey last year.
The third seed continued his journey at the Ningbo Olympic Sports Center, Ningbo, China, on Thursday, April 9, 2026, after eliminating Yudai Okimoto of Japan with a score of 21-18 and 21-13.
"I am grateful to be able to qualify again for the last eight. Last year was also a big disappointment," said the 2018 Asian Games gold medalist in a statement received.
Last year, Jonatan was eliminated in the quarterfinals after losing to Lu Guangzu, who eventually reached the final and defeated Thailand's Kunlavut Vitidsarn.
Jonatan is the first Indonesian representative to secure a ticket to the quarter-finals of this tournament. A total of ten representatives will fight in the second round.
The victory makes Jonatan temporarily hold a 1-0 win-loss record against Yudai, who is currently ranked 37th in the world.
"It's the first time I've met him and I rarely see him play either. Yesterday I saw some on YouTube that didn't have many clips, but I'm grateful that I was able to adapt slowly," said Jonatan.
In the men's singles, Jonatan qualified for the second round along with youth shuttler Alwi Farhan. The 2023 junior world champion has yet to play a match against Kodai Naraoka (Japan) to follow in Jonatan's footsteps to the last eight.
Jonatan's victory was followed by the pair of Jafar Hidayatullah/Felisha Alberta Nathaniel Pasaribu and Amri Syahnawi/Nita Violina Marwah. The defeat of the two names made Indonesia's mixed doubles in this tournament certain to be exhausted.
Jafar/Felisha as the seventh seed failed to continue their journey after being defeated by Kim Jae Hyeon/Jang Ha Jeong (South Korea), while Amri/Nita were silent in front of the first-seeded host, Feng Yan Zhe/Huang Dong Ping.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
