JAKARTA - Bagas Maulana/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri became the only Indonesian representative in the quarter-finals of the Swiss Open 2023 for the men's doubles sector. They became the focus of the Red and White Team to win the title.
Indonesia actually has two other representatives in the men's doubles sector. However, Leo Rolly Carnando/Daniel Marthin and Pramudya Kusumawardana/Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan were left out first.
Leo/Daniel were eliminated in the round of 32 which took place on the first day of the tournament, Tuesday. The pair nicknamed The Babies were defeated by the Danish pair Jeppe Bay/Lasse Molhede in two straight games 20-22, 22-24.
Meanwhile, Pram/Yere suffered a similar fate on Wednesday, when they faced Kenya Mitsuhoshi/Hiroki Okamura from Japan. Even though they have fought hard, the pair nicknamed Prayer finally lost three games 24-26, 21-15, 17-21. So the only hope in the men's doubles did not make Bagas/Fikri burdened. They are actually motivated to prove themselves can be a mainstay.
"Although we live alone after Pram/Yere and Leo/Daniel have been eliminated, we are not burdened. We actually want to show that we can," said Bagas in a written statement released by PBSI.
"Even though we are the only ones who survive in the men's doubles, we are actually not too burdened. We just try to focus on every game we will go through," said Fikri.
Bagas/Fikri secured tickets for the quarter-finals thanks to a victory over Lee Jhe Huei/Yang Po Hsuan in the round of 16 which took place on Thursday night Basel time, Switzerland.
The All England 2022 champion still maintains his focus and quality until he can get out of the three-game competition against the Taiwan duo.
"Alhamdulillah, I was able to win and be given smoothness. In the first game, we were hot first, so we could play well and finally lead far," said Bagas.
"On the other hand, in the second game, the opponent starts to heat up and can find the best performance. In addition, we lost because many died on our own," he continued.
The third game Bagas/Fikri again locked the decisive victory after playing without a burden and avoiding dying alone from the opponent.
"In the third game, we can lead again. The key is not to die alone a lot in the field. We just play nothing to lose and believe in the middle of the field," said Bagas.
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)
