Paris: World No. 1 men’s pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon carved out another victory in the French Open final after defeating Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty of India 21-18, 21-16 in 35 minutes.
Sunday’s victory was Sukamuljo/Gideon’s 7th career head to head win over the Indian pair.
“The opponents were very strong; they had strong attacks. But we were trying to pressure them,” said Sukamuljo.
The French Open title was Sukamuljo/Gideon’s second title in two consecutive weeks after winning the Denmark Open last week. The French Open was also their 7th title of the season, after winning Malaysia Masters, Indonesia Masters, Indonesia Open, Japan Open, China Open and Denmark Open.
“We are very happy, as we always try to enjoy every match. Badminton is very fun for us and there’re still few more tournaments to play this year, and hopefully we can continue our strong performance and achieve good results,” said Gideon.
In mixed doubles, facing the World No. 1 pair Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong whom World No. 5 Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti defeated in last week’s Denmark Open quarter-final, Jordan/Oktavianti lost the first set to the World No. 1 pair 22-24, before winning the next two with 21-16, 21-12.
“Of course we are very pleased with this result. These two wins against Zheng/Huang have proven that we are capable to playing against the best in the world. This also has increased our confidence in the future. But we still have long way to go and we cannot be easily satisfied with this result,” said Jordan.
Meanwhile, Chen Long of China defended the French Open title by winning his 8th career victory over Jonathan Christie with 21-19, 21-12.
