TEMPO.CO, Odense - Indonesia confirms a ticket to 2014 Denmark Open Final as two of its mixed-doubles shuttlers are set to face each other at the semifinal tomorrow. Riky Widianto/Richi Puspita surprisingly upsets the second-seeded Joachim Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark 21-19, 14-21, 21-19 before Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir joined them to make up the all-Indonesian semifinal.
"I did not expect to beat them. Our opponent was far favorited, so we played like we had nothing to lose," said Riky.
Nielsen/ Pedersen admitted they were not at their best against Riky/Richi.
"Riky/Richi played good. We sure wanted to win. We think that we had done our best for Denmark," Nielsen said.
The Indonesian best mixed-doubles pair Tontowi/Liliyana won over Mads Pieler Kolding/Kamilla Rytter Juhl of Denmark 15-21, 16-21, dan 18-21.
The senior pair Tontowi/Liliyana had defeated Riky/Richi in their only encounter in April during the Singapore Open.
Unfortunately, Indonesian men's doubles pair Hendra Setiawan/Mohammad Ahsan failed to tail the success of their compatriots. The 2014 Asian Games gold medalists were defeated by China’s Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan 21-17, 19-21, 11-21.
BADMINTON INDONESIA | ADITYA BUDIMAN
