JAKARTA - Two Indonesian pairs are just one step away from reaping the rewards in the inaugural title race for the BWF Super 750 badminton tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Sunday, after confirming themselves to the final round of the Malaysia Open 2022.
The two pairs are women's doubles Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti, and men's doubles Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto, with each scheduled to compete in the second and fifth matches.
Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva who is ranked 133rd will meet Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu from China. This match will be the second time they have met in the competition.
The first meeting between Apri/Fadia and Zhang/Zheng took place in the last 16 of the Indonesia Open last month and at that time the Indonesian pair emerged victorious after being involved in three games 21-16, 16-21, 21-18.
Despite winning in the last meeting, that record cannot be a benchmark for the ease of today's match. Remembering earlier, Apri/Fadia had to play tired by spending one hour and 20 minutes to beat the 33rd-ranked pair.
Meanwhile in the men's doubles number, the sixth seed Fajar/Rian will meet the second-ranked pair Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi in the final match.
Their match today will be a repeat of a similar encounter that took place in the final round of the Thailand Open 2022 in May. At that time, Fajar/Rian had to settle for being runner-up because Fajar was forced to stop competing due to a back injury.
In the final round of the Thailand Open, Fajar/Rian withdrew in the first game when they were 4-13 behind in the men's doubles from Japan.
So far, Fajar/Rian and Hoki/Kobayashi have played four matches each with two wins and two losses.
The final match of the Malaysia Open 2022 will be held at the Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur and will start at 12.00 WIB, with the details of the schedule as reported by Antara:
Mixed doubles Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Thailand) vs Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong (China) Women's doubles Apriyani Rahayu/Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti (Indonesia) vs Zhang Shu Xian/Zheng Yu (China) Women's singles Ratchanok Intanon (Thailand) vs Chen Yu Fei (China) Men's singles Viktor Axelsen (Denmark) vs Kento Momota (Japan) Men's doubles Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Indonesia) vs Takuro Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi (Japan)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)
