Shah Alam: Indonesia has a chance to repeat. Malaysia has a chance for revenge.
The rematch is set, and it will decide the champions for the 2022 Badminton Asia Team Championships (BATC) on Sunday.
After both experiencing tough semi-finals on Saturday, Indonesia who defeated Malaysia 3-1 at the 2020 BATC final will meet Malaysia again to battle for the 2022 BATC title.
The defending champions Indonesia was made to work, coming back from 0-1, and 2-1 to beat Singapore 3-2 in a pulsating semi-final.
Indonesia also created a history that for the first time its men’s and women’s teams have both qualified for the BATC final at the same time. The Indonesian women’s team won the tickets to the final after their opponents in the semi-finals – Japan, withdrew because several of its players were deemed close contact with a Japanese player who was tested COVID-19 positive.
In another men’s team semi-finals between Malaysia and Korea, the hosts Malaysia survived three turbulent matches to beat Korea 3-0.
Malaysia’s World No. 7 overcame a slow start to beat World No. 2094 Jeon Hyeok Jin 13-21, 21-13, 21-15.
“I was having some trouble getting used to the wind condition inside the stadium,” said Lee.
“Of course, when we make it to the final, we should be aiming to win the championships. Our previous target was to make it to the final,” added Lee.
Malaysia’s World No. 7 men’s doubles, Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik, who suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Japan’s unheralded men’s doubles in the group stage, still not fully at their best form especially Soh Wooi Yik kept making uncharacteristic mistakes at critical moments. After winning the first game against Kim Hwi Tae/Kim Jaehwan 21-14, Chia/Soh was leading 20-17 in the second game. Several errors from Soh Wooi Yik allowed the Korean pair to bounce back to take the game 22-20. Aaron Chia seemed unhappy early in the decider, he tried to take matters into his own hands, but that didn’t work well. At 10-10, Chia/Soh slowly found their rhythm and eventually contributed the second point for Malaysia by winning the decider 21-19.
After their win, Soh threw his jersey to the fans.
“I knew the fans were disappointed with our lost in the tie against Japan, that’s why I want to give them the jersey to thank them for their support,” said Soh.
In the second men’s singles match that followed, Malaysia’s Ng Tze Yong collapsed when leading 19-15 in the first game, lost 6 points in a row allowing Kim Joo Wan of Korea to finish the first game with 19-21.
Nevertheless, Ng managed to pull back 21-16 and 21-12 to seal the victory for Malaysia with an overall score of 3-0.
“I am not going to think too much about the final. I just want to focus one match at a time,” said Ng.
The Malaysian women’s team was defeated by Korea 3-0 on Saturday.
For the record, Malaysia men’s team has never won the BATC. Should they win on Sunday, it would be their first BATC title.
