Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan are happy to be able to overcome the South Korean couple Choi Sul-gyu/Seo Seung-jae. Hendra / Ahsan also passed the results of the previous edition of the Olympics.
This was revealed by Ahsan after completing the three-game match against Choi/Seo. Competing at Musasiho Forest Sport Plaza, Tuesday (27/7/2021), Hendra/Ahsan had to work hard to ensure victory, after their points were stolen in the second game.
Fortunately, they were able to overcome Choi/Seo and won 21-12, 19-21, and 21-18 over Choi/Seo.
“We are very happy. We are happy to close the gap with Korea today. And now we are looking forward to tomorrow’s recovery,” Ahsan said on the page BWF.
The victory over Korea not only made Hendra/Ahsan qualify for the quarter-finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, but the three-time world champion (2013, 2015, and 2019) won Group D.
Previously, they also won two matches against Malaysian doubles Aaron Chia/Soh Wooi Yik with a score of 21-16 and 21-19. In addition, beat Jason Ho-Shue/Nyl Yakura of Canada 21-12 and 21-11. Currently they are just waiting for the draw for opponents in the last eight.
Even more happy because this achievement also made up for the failure in the 2016 Rio Olympics. At that time, they were eliminated more quickly in the group stage.
However, Hendra/Ahsan did not want to be too complacent for this achievement. They will stay focused one by one.
“In our profession, of course Olympic gold is a dream. We want medals. But we don’t want to think too far ahead and (we will) take it step by step,” said Hendra.
Meanwhile, Choi SolGyu/Seo Seungjae admitted that he was disappointed with the result of the match against Hendra/Ahsan. Even though they already had the opportunity after successfully taking victory in the second game of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics group stage.
“They attacked really well. We tried to make it difficult for them, and they made some mistakes, but they kept finding solutions,” Choi said of the game.
“We thought this would be our last game, so we wanted to win. We did our best, but we are disappointed because it failed,” he added.
(mcy/cas)
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