Fuzhou: Indonesia’s World No. 1 men’s pair Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon successfully defended the Fuzhou China Open on Sunday after overcoming Takeshi Kamura/Keigo Sonoda, the fourth-seeded from Japan, with a score of 21-17, 21-9 on Sunday.
Coming behind 5-8 in the second game, Sukamuljo/Gideon continued to pressure Kamura/Sonoda by winning 12 points in a row before taking the second game with a landslide victory.
“In the second game, they were trying to catch up with Kevin by playing with fast speed, which caused them to lose their focus. That gave us a lot of points which allowed us widen the gap quickly,” said Gideon.
“We were happy with our performance, we enjoyed the game and performed quite well. We didn’t do well at the beginning of the year, but after we understood what went wrong and learned how to overcome it, we were improving,” added Gideon.
The 2019 title was also the fourth straight Fuzhou China Open title for Sukamuljo/Gideon and their 8th title of 2019. Sunday’s victory was also their 20th consecutive wins in Fuzhou.
In women’s doubles, No. 2 seeds Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota of Japan defeated No. 5 seeds Lee So Hee/Shin Seung Chan 21-17, 21-15 for the title.
Meanwhile, No. 2 seeds Wang Yi Lyu/Huang Dong Ping of China emerged winners as they battled past compatriots and No. 1 seeds Zheng Si Wei/Huang Ya Qiong 21-14, 21-13.
