Indonesian badminton men’s DOUBLE Bagas Maulana/Muhammad Shohibul Fikri advanced to the All England quarter-finals after defeating world number one and first seed Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, Friday (15/3) early morning WIB.
Bagas/Fikri won over India’s best men’s doubles with two straight games 21-16 and 21-15 in the round of 16 of the All England at the Utilita Arena, Birmingham.
According to Bagas/Fikri, the key to their victory was communication and focus throughout the match.
“We focus on maintaining the direction of the ball from start to finish,” said Bagas in a short PP PBSI statement, Friday (15/3).
The two pairs fought closely from the start of the first game. However, Bagas/Fikri managed to maintain their playing pattern to continue to dominate the match until they won.
The same thing happened in the second game when the pair known as BaKri did not give the world ranking leader a chance to put up a fight.
“We have won against them. So, we have confidence in facing this match. We think that whatever the ranking, the quality is even, almost everyone is the same in men’s doubles,” said Fikri.
Also read: Fajar/Rian meets Bagas/Fikri in the All England quarter-finals
“Indeed, there are defense exercises, both at national training and in matches. We continue to hone these exercises, especially in the first half when we felt that our defense was not good. In the end, thank God, the implementation was better,” he continued.
Bagas/Fikri next meet 2020 Tokyo Olympics bronze medalists Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik from Malaysia in the quarter-finals of the Super 1000 tournament.
“For tomorrow, we want to maintain minimum performance like before or even more,” said Bagas. (Ant/Z-1)
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