Tontowi Ahmad, Liliyana Natsir Win World Badminton Championship

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia’s mixed doubles Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir have won World Badminton Championship in Glasgow, Scotland, after defeating their Chinese counterparts Zheng Siwei and Chen Quinchen.

Tontowi and Liliyana, known as Owi and Butet, played three sets in yesterday' final. A tight contest was presented since the beginning of the first game where both sides shared points up to 6-6.

Thereafter, Chinese pairing racked up three consecutive points to make it 9-8. Zheng and Chen managed to lead 11-9 before the break.

After the break, Tontowi and Liliyana leveled the scoring to 11-11. But it did not last long as Zheng and Chen led the Indonesian pairing by five points at 13-18. The Chinese pairing won the first set by 21-15.

In the second set, Owi and Butet took the lead before the break. The pairing that won Rio Olympics secured the second game by 21-16.

Zeng and Chen’s performance dropped in the final game, allowing Tontowi and Liliyana to lead 11-1 halfway through the game. Having managed to come from behind for a moment, the Chinese best pairing ended their resistance after Tontowi’s hard smash made it 21-15.

As such, Tontowi and Liliyana gave the only World Badminton Championship 2017 for Indonesia. They earlier won world championship title in Guangzhou, China, in 2013. Meanwhile, Indonesian men’s doubles pairing Mohammad Ahasan and Rian Saputro was overpowered by Chinese pair Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan in a 37-minute match by 10-21, 17-21.

ANTARA