PETALING JAYA: The Indonesian shuttlers are under pressure to deliver in their home Masters which gets under way today in Jakarta after a poor start to the year.
Surprisingly, no Indonesians reached the semi-finals in both the Malaysian and Indian Opens.
In the Indian tourney, Indonesia’s best performers were world No. 7 men’s doubles pair Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto and world No. 4 Anthony Ginting in the men’s singles.
Both reached the last eight before going down to South Korea’s eventual champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae and Hong Kong’s Lee Cheuk Yiu respectively.
Fajar-Rian also made it into the quarter-finals in Malaysia along with world No. 7 Gregoria Mariska in the women’s singles before both lost out to China’s eventual winners Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang and reigning Olympic champion Chen Yufei.
Another underwhelming showing especially in front of the passionate home crowd at the Istora Senayan stadium could raise serious questions about Indonesia’s medal chances in the Paris Olympics in July.
Indonesia have never failed to have a representative in the final of the home Masters since the tournament inception in 2010.
In fact, there has been at least one home winner in all the editions except in 2021 where Marcus Fernaldi-Kevin Sanjaya finished runners-up to Japan’s Takuro Hoki-Yugo Kobayashi in the men’s doubles.
In last year’s edition, Jonatan Christie (men’s singles) and Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin (men’s doubles) emerged champions.
Both are going through a dip in form at the moment though and face a tough task to defend their titles.
There is some good news though for the home fans as top women’s doubles pair Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti are set to return in time for the Masters after they were forced to miss the Malaysian and Indian tourneys due to the former’s injury.
