An eye on his third World title
It was an hour battle at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil in Kuala Lumpur and the last match in the finals of the USD500,000 Maybank Malaysia Open Super Series Premier between two of the biggest pairs in the men’s doubles – World No 1 Lee Yong-dae-Yoo Yeon-seong of South Korea and former world No 1 Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan, currently No 4.
And what a match it turned out to be as the packed stadium had the fans at the edge of their seats as the Indonesians came back from a set down to upset the mighty Koreans with a 14-21, 21-15, 23-21. The Koreans were left dazed while the Indonesians were grinning from ear to ear.
Ahsan and Hendra have found new found confidence to defend their title at the this year’s World Championships in Jakarta in August.
“The Indonesian supporters need a special mention here, a big thank you to them for making our victory possible. They were great,” said Ahsan at the post match press conference.
Hendra chipped in and said: “It was an astonishing final which we will remember. Frankly, this win over the Koreans will stand in good stead for us as we head to next week’s Singapore Open.
“More importantly we want to defend our world title in Jakarta in August. We will have home crowd support. And Indonesian fans have always played inspiring roles when we play at home.”
Hendra touched on the rubber set when they were 20-16 up but allowed the Koreans to draw level at 20-20 before winning 23-21.
“We lived to our motto of “never give up’ and ‘never surrender’ until the last. We went into aggressive attacking mode for the winning points. The feeling is simply great when you beat the World No 1 pair to win a title,” added Hendra.
The Indonesians also beat the Koreans at the Asian Games final last year in South Korea for the men’s doubles gold.
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