JAKARTA - Indonesia has no more expectations at the 2026 Malaysia Masters after the men's singles badminton player Mohammad Zaki Ubaidillah, who was the last hope, was eliminated from the BWF Super 500 tournament.
Ubed, who is not on paper as a favorite, can give his best performance against the third seed Christo Popov of France with a final score of 21-23 and 19-21 at the Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur, on Friday, May 22, 2026.
"Today's match, thank God, was able to be given a good game without injury as well. The result was not lucky, but what I was planning from the beginning, the game was able to implement it, thank God," he said in a statement.
The two players were involved in a fierce battle in the first game. Popov took the first two points, but Ubed immediately bounced back and scored four consecutive points to take the lead.
Popov then immediately resisted and managed to tie the score. The draw happened again twice after that, namely 5-5 and 10-10, before Ubed led slightly at the interval.
Ubed immediately added three points after that to get away, but Popov changed the situation when he managed to score six points to get ahead again. The two were still involved in the chase after that, but Ubed was stuck in a crucial point.
In the second game, Ubed started well to take a 5-1 lead. However, Popov slowly caught up and managed to cut the gap to one point at the break. He then scored four consecutive points and was difficult to stop.
"After being tight, he is stronger in his mind with the experience he has. This is a very valuable lesson for me. I can learn a lot for the future, especially how to manage the mental and mind in tight matches," said Ubed.
The badminton player from Sampang, Madura, qualified for the quarterfinals with Jonatan Christie, who was eliminated earlier this afternoon after losing to the Chinese youth badminton player, Hu Zhe An, in a three-game match.
Indonesian representatives will then face the BWF Super 750 Singapore Open next week. After that, they will perform at home for the BWF Super 1000 Indonesia Open on June 2-7, 2026.
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)
