Jakarta: Indonesia’s legendary men’s doubles pair – current World No. 2 Hendra Setiawan and Mohammad Ahsan, also known as “The Daddies”, are the most consistent Indonesian men’s doubles pair.
Playing at the age of 36 and 33 respectively, they continued to defy age, as they just finished runners-up at the BWF World Tour Finals last Sunday, losing to Lee Yang/Wang Chi-Lin of Taiwan 17-21, 21-23 in 37 minutes.
“If you look at the game, Ahsan/Hendra have lost their stamina. Drift inside the stadium was disturbing their rhythm. However, we must also acknowledge that the Chinese Taipei players have been very consistent for three weeks. Their performance at the Thailand Open was really good. I think their concentration and focus were extraordinary,” said Indonesian men’s doubles coach, Herry Iman Pierngadi to PBSI.
“Indeed for Ahsan/Hendra, the fact that they could still reach the final, in my opinion, they did extremely well especially when both of them are above 30 years old. Even if they couldn’t become the champions,” said Pierngadi.
Pierngadi also said that Ahsan/Setiawan were facing difficulties implementing their game plan in the final because their opponents were playing really fast and aggressive.
“We were constantly pressured by the Taiwanese pair in the first game and we couldn’t get out from that situation. The Chinese Taipei players were playing with very fast and high-quality shots. We tried to change our strategy but to no avail because Lee/Wang were attacking and pressing Ahsan/Hendra continuously. We tried to attack and defense, but they were just too strong in launching counter-attacks immediately,” explained Pierngadi.
“We lost because they were strong in attacks. When playing against Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae of South Korea in the semi-final, the Korean pair was playing with a similar strategy as Lee/Wang, but their attacks were not as strong. The Chinese Taipei pair was very powerful and very consistent. Therefore, we lost in terms of speed and power,” added Pierngadi.
