Kevin/Marcus is through the final after winning the match against the Chinese pair, Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen with the score of 21-9 and 21-13. On the other hand, Hendra/Ahsan managed to bury the Japanese pair dream, Takura Hoki/Yugo Kobayashi with the score of 17-21, 21-19 and 21-17.
“Thank god that we can finally have an All Indonesian Finals, as this is a big tournament, all the players here are very strong. I would like to express my gratitude to all the Indonesian supporters who have enthusiastically come to see the match, as some found it difficult to get the ticket. This is a present to the Indonesian supporter, from Hendra/Ahsan and Kevin/Marcus,” said Herry Iman Pierngadi.
“There will be no specific direction and strategy for the match tomorrow both to Kevin/Marcus and Hendra/Ahsan as both pairs want to collect as many points as possible to reach the Olympics. As a coach, I have to be neutral,” said Herry.
Furthermore, Herry claims that although he is satisfied with this achievement, he still hopes that the young players can replicate the success of their seniors. “As long as they (Hendra/Ahsan) they are still able to play, why not? It’s not a problem to me. But on the other hand, regeneration is still needed. We should not keep on relying on Hendra/Ahsan and Kevin/Marcus. The young players have to catch up with their seniors’ achievement as soon as possible, so that Indonesia will have many good Men’s Doubles pair options and not just keep on relying to the same pairs all the time, if we can have four to Five good pairs, it’s better for us” he said
On the other hand, Herry claims that he is concerned with Fajar Alfian/Muhammad Rian Ardianto whose performance is decreasing steadily and the pair has to be knocked out early in the quarter-final stage of the tournament. “There are five Men’s Doubles pairs playing in this tournament but I have my eyes on Fajar/Rian as they were underperforming in this tournament, they didn’t play all-out, this is homework for me, I can use this result to evaluate their performance so that they can play better in the next tournaments,” he said.
“Actually there are many factors that caused this result, their performance, concentration quality and their muscle masses were declining. There was a significant decrease of performance when they were playing against the Japanese pair, it was far below my expectation and I was not satisfied with it. I have spoken to them and motivated them so that they can be better in the future,” he added.
On the other hand, speaking about the competition among the three backbone pairs of the Indonesian Men’s Doubles team to grab the ticket to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Herry claims that the qualification period is still long and each pair have the similar chance to play in the Olympics.
“The qualification period for the Olympics is still on until April 2020, so there is still enough time until then. There are more candidates for the Olympics, such as Fajar/Rian and the other pairs. There is still a chance that the candidate may change, whoever is more ready will grab the ticket to the Olympics,” he said.
Currently, there are three Indonesian Men’s Doubles pairs in the World’s top 8 ranking. Each country is only allowed to send the maximum of two representatives. Kevin/Marcus currently sits on the first rank, followed by Hendra/Ahsan in the No. 4 rank and Fajar/Rian in the No. 6 rank.
