Jakarta: Playing in front of home crowd, hosts Indonesia got a major boost ahead of the Asian Games badminton men’s team final when they beat top favorites Japan 3-1 on Tuesday.
The red hot reigning World Champion Kento Momota of Japan clawed back from dropping first set in the first men’s singles match as he saw off Anthony Ginting of Indonesia 14-21, 21-14, 21-16.
“I already got use to Momota’s style in the decider, but I lost my focus which cost me the match,” said Ginting.
On the other hand, Momota was complaining about the drift which affected his performance in the first set.
“Thanks to my teammate for their support to help me win the match,” said Momota.
With the cheering from a raucous home crown, World No. 1 men’s pair Marcus Gideon/Kevin Sukamuljo of Indonesia levelled the tie by beating Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda 21-18, 21-12.
“The Japanese pair looked nervous and they were perhaps distracted by loud noise from the crowd,” said Gideon.
Jonathan Christie gave the hosts a 2-1 advantage by beating Kenta Nishimoto 21-15, 21-19, before Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto became heroes for the hosts by sealing the winning point as they outlasted Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko 21-10, 21-10.
Indonesia is set to play another badminton powerhouse, China, in the final.
China, on the other hand, also defeated Chinese Taipei with the same 3-1 score.
Chinese Taipei’s World No. 6 Chou Tien Chen started the tie strong for his team when he overcame a stiff challenge from World No. 2 Shi Yuqi of China 21-13, 21-19 to win the first men’s singles match.
China was force to withstand stronger than expected challenges from Chinese Taipei when the reigning men’s doubles world Champions needed three-sets to beat Chen Hungling/Wang Chilin 19-21, 21-12, 21-9; while the Rio Olympic men’s singles champion Chen Long also prevailed in a three-set thriller against Wang Tzu-Wei of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 21-13, 21-17.
In their debut at the Asian Games, the 2017 men’s doubles World Championships Liu Cheng/Zhang Nan of China wasted no time to lift China past Chinese Taipei with a total 3-1 score after knocking out Lee Jhe-huei and Lee Yang of Chinese Taipei 21-13, 21-17.
