Bali: After winning the first round of the Indonesia Open, Indonesia’s World No. 1 men’s doubles pair – Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo/Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, a.k.a “the Minions” have complained to the Badminton World Federation (BWF) about the busy tournament schedule.
The complaint was due to BWF’s decision to place “the Minions” on the first day of the Indonesia Open on Tuesday even though they just competed in a hard-fought Indonesia Masters final last Sunday.
“First of all, we are grateful to be able to win today. But we think BWF is treating us like robots because after playing on Sunday, we immediately started playing today because we were the top seeds,” said Sukamuljo after Tuesday’s match.
According to Indonesia media, it said that BWF rules stated each participant in the upper half of the draw will compete in the first round on the second day of the tournament. While those who competed on the first day were participants in the lower half of the draw.
In addition, there is also a policy for players who have just entered the final of the previous tournament to be given an extra day of rest and to start their next tournament on the second day of the match schedule.
However, Sukamuljo/Gideon, who were placed at the top of the draw and just competed in the Indonesia Masters on Sunday, were required to play in the Indonesia Open first round on Tuesday.
“It’s not fair, there is no rest, especially after going through a very intense final on Sunday. Of course, this was very tiring and has a huge impact on us physically,” added Sukamuljo.
Gideon was also unhappy that he only knew about the draw results for the Indonesia Open on Monday night.
“I actually didn’t know that I needed to play on Tuesday, because I thought I would play on Wednesday and could have Tuesday and Monday off. When the schedule came out Monday night, we ended up having to play today. It’s very unusual,” added Gideon.
Due to the tight schedule, the Minions admitted that they did not make special preparations for their first match in the Super 1000 tournament.
“We don’t have any special preparations, just play without a burden. If we lose, we lose,” concluded Sukamuljo.
