Playing in front of the home crowd, Ginting failed to deal with the pressure of the match, and had to suffer a two-game defeat of 21-14, 21-15. In fact, Ginting also was also beaten by the same player during the latest Malaysia Open 2018, on that occasion Ginting could bring the match into rubber game although in the end he lost it with the score of 12-21, 21-17, and 21-14.

“I made too many unforced errors on the first game. On the second game, I take the initiative to play the attacking game. After the break, Momota changed his approach and stopped my attempts to attack him. Momota is a consistent player, and he doesn’t make a lot of mistakes. He was smart to adjust his approach to be like the first game,” Ginting said.

In contrast, Momota claimed that the key to the victory was to not let giving Ginting any chance to attack. “Ginting’s attacking play is very good, so my strategy is to avoid being attacked by him. During Malaysia Open, I got attacked a lot by him, now I know that he will continuously giving me smashes, so I tried to defend against that,” Momota adds.

“I thought I would lose the second game, but what matters was that I managed to take point by point from him. About the supporters, I have to admit I was a bit under pressure of them, but out of all the supporters who are rooting for Ginting, I believe there are a few who are supporting me, so I just played my best,” said Momota.

Ginting’s loss means that Tommy Sugiarto is Indonesia’s men’s singles team last resort in Blibli Indonesia Open 2018. Tommy will only play the match later today when is scheduled to play against Chou Tien Chen from Taiwan.