MD - FINALS : the Minions dethroned by KO and SHIN

Marcus Fernaldi GIDEON / Kevein Sanjaya SUKAMULJO (world no 1, Indonesia) winners of the last Frech Open in 2019 wanted to hold on to their title this afternoon. But KO Sung Hyun and SHIN Baekcheol (world no 25, Korea) decided otherwise. What a week for the two Koreans !

Yesterday, both of them played epic semifinals. The world number one beat their country fellows Fajar ALFIAN and Muhammad Rian ADRIANTO after saving 6 match points : 26/24 in the deciding game. On their side, KO and SHIN also saved 3 match points against the number 4 seed Aaron CHIA and SOH Wooi Yik before winning 24/22 in the last set.

Korean power in the first set…

It was a while since the two pairs played against each other : in Singapore in 2016 and the Indonesians went victorious in 3 sets. The Korean team put a lot of pressure the serves and smashed so powerfully in the first set. The Minions were not that far at the scoreboard but always behind the two black-dressed men : 11/9 at the interval. They kept this way of playing all along the set to improve their advantage and win the first set : 11/7.

… and mental in the second one

The next set started as it ended : Korean domination on the court. They even tried to lift a bit more since only GIDEON seemed to be concerned about the back court tasks. And it worked : 11/7 at the interval. But with their experience, the Minions took back the attack, they put some more variations in their games. Thus, they came back up to 15/15. Since then, several ties until 19/19. Nevertheless, the world number 25 had two title opportunities, the Minions saved the first but not the second. Therefore, this year men’s double title goes to : KO Sung Hyun and SHIN Baekcheol. What an incredible week for the two Koreans, after having 2 difficult years to find sponsors to be able to compete, they beat in the same tournament : the Daddies in quarter final, the powerful CHIA and SOH in the semis and the world number one GIDEON and SUKAMULJO.

The two players were so pleased after this new title : “First, we would like to thank everybody who supported us during the whole tournament. We came here without knowing that we would be able to win today. We took match after match and we are super happy about the result. Compared to the younger players (the Minons), we do not have the endurance so it is difficult for us to compete with them but having the experience can help. And we think it helped us today.”

Congratulations to them !