PETALING JAYA: Shuttlers Leo Rolly-Bagas Maulana and Shohibul Fikri-Daniel Marthin could be new threats in the men’s doubles after a stunning start.
Leo had previously partnered Daniel while Bagas was playing together with Shohibul but the Indonesian coaches decided to reshuffle the pairings following their failure to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
The pairs have not taken long to gel and caught the eye in the Japan and Korean Opens.
Leo-Bagas especially stole the show when they made it into the semi-finals of the Japan Open before capturing the Korean Open title in Mokpo on Sunday.
And the duo won their first title in style by stunning home favourites and world champions Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae 18-21, 21-9, 21-8 in a fast paced final.
Meanwhile, Shohibul-Daniel also did well to reach back-to-back semi-finals and their run in the Korean tourney was ended by Leo-Bagas.
Both pairs are keen to continue their good form when they compete next in the back-to-back Hong Kong Open (Sept 10-15) and China Open (Sept 17-22).
“We’ve surprised ourselves with this win. We played without pressure so we were able to enjoy the match and give our all,” Leo told the Badminton World Federation (BWF) after winning the Korean Open.
Bagas said: “We didn’t have an ideal start (to the match) but after discussing tactics with our coaches, we recovered and got the job done.
“We can feel we’ve got better this week (after the semifinal finish in Japan) but the work continues. There are still things to improve on and we want to keep learning.”
There are promising early signs that the decision to reshuffle both the pairings could turn out to be a masterstroke.
