French Open 2023: Apri/Fadia Banks Fear To Kick Japan's Representative In Quarter Finals
JAKARTA - Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti beat Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota to reach the semifinals of the French Open 2023. The seventh seed stopped their fourth seeded opponent in two straight games 21-16 and 21-19 at Glaz Arena, Rennes, France, Friday, October 27, 2023.
"Obviously Fadia and I are happy with today's results, but that doesn't make us too confident," Apri said after the match as accepted in an official statement.
This victory made Apri / Fadia have a record win-loss with the Japanese pair to 2-3. One of their defeats to Yuki / Sayaka took place at the Asian Games earlier this month.
At that time, Apri/Fadia could not compete and chose to resign from the round of 16 because Apri suffered a right calf injury.
"I don't think about the Asian Games incident yesterday when I had to back down against them. I tried to dispel the fear, I told Fadia to play normally because I came here to compete to win," said Apri.
In the semifinals tomorrow, Apri/Fadia will face the Chinese pair, Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning. The meeting could be a tough test for Apri/Fadia.
The reason is, their opponents are the couple who previously stopped their compatriots as well as the first seed, Chen Qingchen/Jia Yifan.
"Tomorrow's semifinal match against Liu Sheng Shu/Tan Ning (China) will be our first meeting. It will be crowded and we have to be aware of their fairly large power," said Fadia.