No let-up for Indonesian pair in their search of third title

PETALING JAYA: There is no stopping Indonesian men’s doubles shuttlers Mohammad AhsanHendra Setiawan as they seek for glory again at the World Championships.

The experienced pair have been through thick and thin and were separated for nearly two years before they paired up again at the start of 2018. And now, they are in the hunt for their third world title.

Yesterday, they checked into the quarter-finals after a 21-19, 21-16 win against Scottish pair Alexander Dunn-Adam Hall in 33 minutes in the third round.

Today, Ahsan-Setiawan will go up against the winners of the match between Denmark’s Kim AstrupAnders Skaarup Rasmussen and Taiwan’s Liao Min-chun-Su Chingheng for a place in the semi-final.

The duo are all fired up to make up for the disappointments of compatriots and top seeds Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo, who were shockingly given the boot early in the second round by South Korean’s Choi Solgyu-Seo Sung-jae.

Marcus-Kevin lost 21-16, 14-21, 21-23 and it has made the race for the men’s doubles title quite open.

Ahsan-Hendra have won two world titles before – at the 2013 edition in Guangzhou, China and the 2015 edition in their own backyard.

Since coming back together again last year, the 31-year-old Ahsan and Hendra, 34, continue to defy their ages to rise from the 172nd place to their current world No. 2 position in the world rankings.

They are also now the oldest partnership in the top 10.

Their biggest win since resuming their partnership is the All-England title in March this year when they defeated Malaysia’s No. 1 pair and youngsters Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik 11-21, 21-14, 21-12 in the final in Birmingham.