Strong run: Indonesia men’s singles shuttler Jonatan Christie in action against India’s Lakshya Sen during the group match of the Thomas Cup Finals.
CHENGDU: The in form Jonatan Christie is pumped up to fire Indonesia into the semi-finals of the Thomas Cup Finals.
Jonatan continued his great run of form by beating India’s Lakshya Sen 21-18, 16-21, 21-17 in a hard-fought second singles match to propel Indonesia to a 4-1 win to top Group C at the Hi-Tech Zone Sports Complex in Chengdu on Wednesday.
The win extended the 2018 Asian Games gold medallist’s unbeaten run to 13 matches.
Jonatan captured back-to-back titles at the All-England Open and Asian Championships before the team meet and last tasted defeat in the first round of the French Open in March.
The 26-year-old is determined to continue his strong run against South Korea in the quarter-finals today after the hard-fought win over India that helped his team finish top of the group.
“When you play a major tournament, it’s all about mentality and fighting spirit,” said Jonatan.
“It was very tough against India again for us. We lost to them in the final of the last edition. We had motivation to do well this time and we just went all out.”
“We want to keep giving whatever we have and fight for every point.”
Men’s doubles pair Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana also impressed ahead of the tie against Korea after stunning India’s world No. 3 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty 24-22, 22-24, 21-19 in a thrilling first doubles match.
The world No. 9 was preferred to world No. 7 Fajar Alfian-Rian Ardianto and they justified the selection in style.
The other points were delivered by Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin in the second doubles and Chico Aura in the third singles.
Only world No. 7 Anthony Ginting could not deliver a point when he went down 21-13, 12-21, 12-21 to world No. 9 H. S. Prannoy.
Indonesia have the advantage over South Korea in the singles as the latter’s highest ranked player is world No. 47 Jeon Hyeok-jin.
In the doubles, South Korea will be relying on reigning world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae and possibly scratch pair Kim Won-ho-Ki Dong-ju to deliver the points but Indonesian doubles can be untouchables if they are on form.
