PETALING JAYA: Indonesia’s men’s doubles led by world No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto suffered a rare disappointing outing at the Asian Championships.
Fajar-Rian, who captured two out of the three Super 1000 level tournaments this year – the Malaysian Open in January and All-England in March – were stunned by independent Malaysian pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi 15-21, 20-22 in the quarter-finals in Dubai on Friday.
The loss was surprising as the Indonesians have been the most in-form pair in the World Tour circuit, reaching eight finals in 2022 and winning four titles.
Short run: Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian (back) and Rian Ardianto lost 15-21, 20-22 to Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi in the quarter-finals of the Asian Championships in Dubai. — AP
In Dubai, world No. 8 Yew Sin-Ee Yi had to bring out their best performance of the year to turn the tables on Fajar-Rian.
It was sweet revenge for the Malaysians, who had lost out to the latter in the quarter-finals of the Malaysian Open.
Meanwhile, Fajar-Rian’s teammates Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan (No. 3) and Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana (No. 15) also tasted defeat in the last eight.
The former fell 11-21, 12-21 to India’s Swiss Open winners Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty while the latter went down 14-21, 17-21 to Japan’s 2021 world champions Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi.
Indonesian and Thailand Masters champions Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin narrowly lost out 21-19, 19-21, 20-22 to national pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in the first round.
The defeats ended Indonesia’s hopes of defending the title won by world No. 21 Pramudya Kusumawardana-Yeremia Rambitan in Manila last year.
The country possessed such an enviable strength in depth that Pramudya-Yeremia could not qualify this time around.
This is also the first time this year that no Indonesian pair managed to go beyond the quarter-finals in a Super 500 level tournament and above.
The poor result will definitely serve as a wake-up call for Indonesia ahead of the Sudirman Cup from May 14-21 in Suzhou where the country will be banking on their men’s doubles to deliver a crucial point in their matches.
Indonesia have been placed in Group B along with Thailand, Germany and Canada in the prestigious team meet and are favourites to progress to the quarter-finals as group winners.
