“Although I’m currently celebrating my birthday, it doesn’t affect today’s performance. I have celebrated it earlier with my wife and kid. Maybe they are the ones that helped me to boost my motivation during the match,” said Tontowi Ahmad.

In the not-so-young age, the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics still hopes that he can give his best performance for the achievement of the Indonesian Badminton team. “My hopes are to be able to play Badminton in the maximum level, secure a spot in the Olympics and to stay healthy,” he hoped.

“Initially I have the target to at least play until 2020. But this doesn’t mean that I cannot play much longer if I can still play well,” he added.

“Today Butet (Lilyana Natsir) watched the match. She brings a lot of benefits to us. She also gave us some inputs. She has sent birthday wishes to me, but she hasn’t give me presents,” he said while laughing.

In the future, Tontowi hopes that the Indonesian Mixed Doubles team through the Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti, Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja pairs and also all the other pairs can continue to make proud of Indonesia in the Badminton world.

“It’s a bit disappointing that Praveen/Melati and Hafiz/Gloria have to leave the competition early. Maybe they were nervous because there are so many supporters supporting them here, that’s why they played like that. Now that Butet and I is no longer a pair, it’s their time to shine and to carry the duty,” Tontowi said.

“Actually now I can start to relax as I’ve won the title before. But the fact that I’m still playing should motivate them more. Even I’m still in full spirit, they should be in full spirit as well. But hopefully they can perform better and show their qualities. The Olympics medal hopes lie on their shoulder, they have to be more motivated and strengthen the mentality,” he stated.