MD - Day 5 :Just epic !
Do you prefer the epic finish made in Indonesia…
It was the first men double semifinal, and what a spectacular match it was ! The two teams knew each other very well. In addition to the fact that they are coming from the same country, Marcus Fernaldi GIDEON / Kevein Sanjaya SUKAMULJO (world no 1, Indonesia) and Fajar ALFIAN / Muhammad Rian ADRIANTO (world no 7, Indonesia) already played 8 times against each other (5/3 in favor of the Mignons). The first set was tight. 11/10 at the interval for the world number 1 followed by 5 ties : 15/15, 16/16, 17/17, 18/18 and 19/19. It was the defending champions who had the last word : 21/19. Nevertheless, the number 3 seed impressively started the following game, leading 11/7 at the interval. GIDEON seemed a bit tired since he is the one that mostly goes to the back of the court. Therefore, ALFIAN and ADRIANTO scored a few points in a row to lead 17/9. From this moment, the Mignons chose to wait for the deciding game. The two players were only lifting to keep their energy for the last set. This is how the 2020 Perodua Malaysia Masters won the set 21/12. The intensity was back at the beginning of the last game but it was ALFIAN and ADRIANTO who took the lead 11/8 at the interlude. An advantage they kept to offer themselves 3 match points at 20/17. It was the moment GIDEON chose to perfectly serve to take the lead back 21/20. However, the world number 7 went back to get 3 more opportunities to win at 22/21 23/22 and 24/23. But they took none. Worst, the best team in the world scored the 3 next points to play another final here in Paris. The Mignons confessed after the game that : “ we were focusing on every point even though we were behind. We train against them every day and we have to admit that we have been a bit lucky today.”
… or the one made in Korea ?
The Mignons will be joined tomorrow by KO Sung Hyun and SHIN Baekcheol (world no 25, Korea ). It took them a bit more than 50 minutes to defeat Aaron CHIA and SOH Wooi Yik (world no 8, Malaysia) after another epic battle.
It was the first time they had faced each other. The first set was the Malaysian one. With his terrible smashes, CHIA breached the Korean defense. But SOH was so clean at the net that the Korean did not know where to play. Thus, the seeded number 4 won the opening game 21/14. But what happened to that team in the next set ? A lot of mistakes plus good intentions from the world number 25 brought the challengers to lead 18/4 and despite some points scored by the Kuala Lumpur natives, the set what taken by the Koreans 21/10. The deciding set was so though at the beginning, with many ties until 10/10. But after the interval the devastating smashes of the Malaysian were back to once again destroy the Korean’s defense : 18/14. However the world number 25 did a great come back to 19/19 to offer an epic end of the match. They even saved 3 match points, and took the only opportunity the Malaysian gave them to join the Minions tomorrow. Bottom line of the historical day : 21/14 10/21 24/22. In mixed zone, they gave us their first impression : “When we enter the third game we did not want to lose badly. We were focused on the first points of this deciding game. We took point after point and did our very best to won the match.”
Concerning their opponents tomorrow : “They are really a good pair. So we will try to enter our match from the very first point. We won’t have any pressure so we will just enjoy the game tomorrow”.