“Playing against our teammate was tense. But yesterday we all had discussions about whoever prepared more for the game will win the match. Maybe on the last couple points by the end of the match we could remain calm and steal the last few points,” said Hafizh.

This result means that Hafiz/Gloria will be Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir’s opponent on the semifinal match that will be held on Saturday (7/7).

Tomorrow’s encounter will be the second meetings between these two pairs. Both pairs first saw each other during the All England Open 2018. On that occasion, Hafiz/Gloria played brilliantly and grabbed the victory from Tontowi/Liliyana through a tight three-game match with the score of 18-21, 21-15 and 30-29.

“Thank god we could win today’s match, and tomorrow we hope that we can prove our worth again as was during All England. We shouldn’t feel enough with this result. Playing in a tournament as big as Indonesia Open, where there are many possibilities open for us, we should be able to make use of this,” Gloria said.

“As the younger (pair), undoubtedly we have more power than Butet (Liliyana) and Owi (Tontowi), so we just have to believe in our capability. Playing against our teammate who has more experience than us will definitely scare us. But we must believe in ourselves with everything that we are capable of,” Hafiz said.