Bagas/Fikri Are Not Ready To Face Full Power Liang Wei/Wang Chang's Surprise In The Thailand Open Final

Men's doubles Bagas Maulana/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri won the runner-up title from Thailand Open 2023 Super BWF tournament in Bangkok, Sunday. (ANTARA/HO-PP PBSI)

JAKARTA - The men's doubles Bagas Maulana/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri said that their defeat in the final round of the Thailand Open 2023 was due to a lack of readiness when facing the shock-packed Liang Wei Bain/Wang Chang game. "We met them for the first time and we were surprised by the full and strong game. Meanwhile, we have run out of energy," Bagas said through an official PP PBSI message in Jakarta, Antara, Sunday, June 4. In the men's doubles final match, the Indonesian duo had to settle for being runner-up after losing two straight games 10-21, 15-21 after struggling in 27 minutes against the pair from China. The All England 2022 champion lost their best playing pattern and did not play as much as possible when appearing in the semifinals, Saturday. "We really lost our best form as we showed yesterday in the semifinals. We had time to rise at the end of the second game but it was difficult to turn things around," Bagas explained. The match against Liang/Wang was tense, making the results unsatisfactory. Actually, these tensions don't have to happen, but the field conditions also make them continue to be depressed throughout the match. "I don't feel too tense but indeed the conditions on the ground are under pressure, and we can't get out of that pressure. At first the pattern we did was right but over time the focus disappeared," Fikri explained. For further evaluation, Bagas/Fikri said that aspects of stamina and focus level in the field must be increased. They also tried to take the positive side of their defeat today. "We have to increase our stamina, power and focus on the field. It seems that when we make a lot of mistakes ourselves, we will pay off our focus," said Fikri. Despite bringing home the runner-up title, the world's 14th-ranked men's doubles are still grateful for the results from Thailand Open 2023 and hope to be a motivation to perform better in the next tournaments. "We are still grateful for this result, this is a good start to achieving achievements again in the future. But we are disappointed with our game today," concluded Fikri.