The magical run for Indonesian young guns Pramudya Kusumawardana and Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob Rambitan ended with their first-ever Asian title in men’s doubles, taking down world no. 9 Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of Malaysia, 23-21, 21-10, Sunday at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex in Muntinlupa City.
The other semifinalists in Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto and Malaysia’s Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin bagged 8,400 points for each pair.
Trailing at the onset of the match, the Indonesians got the upper hand at 20-19 and then needed to fend off the Malaysian duo to snag the set advantage.
Sensing they have the advantage, Kusumawardana and Rambitan got into the second interval with a five-point lead of 11-6.
The 2021 Spain Masters champions then fired from all over the court to eventually seal a historic title for them following their two wins in the said tournament and also in last year’s Belgian International.
Kusumawardana said, “We just closed the gap in the first set. And then, in the second set, we just tried to push because we have the momentum and we kept that. They are a bit struggling because we got the momentum.
“I can’t believe that we made it. I am so happy right now,” the 21-year-old upstart from Sukabumi added.
Kusumawardana and Rambitan gained 12,000 points for BWF World Rankings, expecting to go up much higher than the 20th place, while Chia and Soh received 10,200.
The tournament is made possible by SMART, MVP Sports Foundation, Li-Ning, Cignal, TV5, One Sports, Robinson’s Land, Premium Megastructure Inc., Philippine Badminton Association, Badminton Asia, the Philippine Olympic Committee, the Philippine Sports Commission, and Muntinlupa Mayor Fresnedi and the City of Muntinlupa.
