Praveen/Jasmine Beat Christiansen/Boje In Tokyo Olympics Group C Second Qualifying Match
JAKARTA - Indonesian mixed doubles Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti won again in the second qualifying match of Group C at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics against the Danish pair Mathias Christiansen/Alexandra Boje.
In a match that lasted 46 minutes at Musashino Forest Sport Plaza, Tokyo, Japan, on Sunday, Praveen/Melati overthrew Christiansen/Boje in two games with a score of 24-22, 21-19.
As quoted by Antara from the BWF website, Sunday, July 25, Praveen/Melati, who are the All England 2020 champions, faced quite tough resistance from Christiansen/Boje in the first game.
Although they did not take the lead, the Danish duo continued to stick tight until the position was leveled at 14-14.
After that, Praveen / Melati took the lead. Shortly after, Christiansen/Boje caught up and again drew 20-20.
The two pairs then attacked each other. However, with the speed of movement and more accurate punches, Praveen/Melati were able to outperform Christiansen/Boje. After 22-22 points, the Garuda representative won the first game with an initial score of 24-22.
Entering the second game, the Danish pair immediately took the lead early in the game. Praveen/Melati were forced to work hard to find loopholes to kill their opponents. The points of the two pairs chased each other throughout the match until several draws.
However, once again Praveen/Melati proved their superiority. With two hard smashes, after 18-18, they secured the final points and won the second game with a closing score of 21-19.
On paper, Praveen/Melati are indeed superior because they are currently ranked 4th in the world, while Christiansen/Boje are in 17th place.
Furthermore, in the final preliminary match of Group C at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Praveen/Melati will face the vice hosts Yuta Watanabe/Arisa Higashino on Monday, July 26.
Previously, two representatives of Indonesia had finished their match in the group stage, namely the women's singles Group M Gregoria Mariska Tunjung who won 21-11, 21-8 over Myanmar's Thet Htar Thuzar.
Then, the men's singles Group J Anthony Sinisuka Ginting defeated Hungary's Gregely Krausz with the final result 21-13, 21-8.