Greysia/Apriyani Ducked World Rank One Fukushima/Hirota

Greysia/Apriyani (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - The Indonesian women's pair Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu defeated the host's representative who is also world number one in women's doubles Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota in the final match of Group A of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

In a match that lasted for 1 hour and 21 minutes at Field 1 Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, Tokyo, Japan, Tuesday, Greysia/Apriyani, who are ranked sixth in the world, won in three games with the final result 24-22, 13-21, 21-8. .

Greysia/Apriyani looked stunning in the first game. They immediately stole the start even though it was only up to 3-3. After that, his opponent turned superior, but Greysia / Apriyani continued to stick tight.

A score chase ensued. Their score is also a draw several times. After 17-17, Greysia/Apriyani moved more swiftly to secure the next point, but again their opponent was able to match it up to 22-22.

Then with the last two hard hits, Greysia/Apriyani broke through the opponent's defense while stealing points and won the first game with a score of 24-22.

Entering the second game, Greysia/Apriyani's performance even decreased. Their punches, which had previously been on target, suddenly went off the rails. In addition, they also made mistakes several times themselves.

As a result, they lost a lot of points. This condition was used well by his opponent. With alacrity, Fukushima/Hirota returned the balls in a direction to get points and lead the game.

Behind 11-17, Greysia/Apriyani seems to have run out of energy to catch up. There wasn't even a draw in the second game. The game closed with the advantage of Fukushima / Hirota 21-13.

The situation reversed in the third game. Greysia/Apriyani got up to fight back, and they got a lot of points.

The Garuda representative seems to have known the opponent's weakness. Evidently, their journey this time was very smooth. They can collect numbers easily. There was no significant resistance from the world champion.

Fukushima/Hirota are far behind 7-20. Without wasting time, Greysia/Apriyani immediately secured the final points and won a landslide victory 21-8 in the decisive game.

The results of the match also perfected the victory of Greysia / Apriyani during the Group A elimination phase of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Previously, they had won two victories, namely over Malaysian representatives Chow Mei Kuan/Lee Meng Yean with a score of 21-14, 21-17 on Saturday, 24 July and the British pair Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith 21-11, 21-13 on Monday. , July 26.

Besides Greysia/Apriyani, there are two representatives of the Red and White team who will play a group stage match on Tuesday, namely the men's doubles Group A Marcus Fernaldi Gideon/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo against the Taiwanese pair Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin.

Then followed by the appearance of the men's doubles Group D Mohammad Ahsan / Hendra Setiawan against Choi Sol Gyu / Seo Seung Jae from South Korea.