New Delhi: Jonatan Christie has been so strong against Loh Kean Yew that he hadn’t lost a single meeting against the Singaporean shuttler in eight outings. And Loh is not just any other player but a former world champion.
On Saturday, the Indonesian made it 9-0 to mark his entry into the men’s singles final of the $950,000 India Open — the first time he has made the summit clash at the Super 750 event — with a 21-18, 22-20 victory in 46 minutes at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium here.
Though he has never been a world No.1, world or Olympic champion, the world No.4 has hovered at the top, challenging and beating the best, never dropping out of the top-10 since January 2019.
That journey hasn’t been without successes as Christie won the 2018 Asian Games gold, the 2024 Asian Championships and the 2024 All England crown. He also played a crucial role in helping Indonesia win the 2020 Thomas Cup.
Now with his first final here, he is eager to win his first title of the year to commence his journey towards the World Championships — to be held here in August — and the Asian Games in Japan.
“First of all, we must know our goal — when, where and which tournament to participate in, we must focus on that. Then we can prepare for what we want to achieve,” said Christie, who won three titles last year — Korea Open, Denmark Open and Hylo Open.
Third seed Christie mixed his tactics and kept his nerves in key situations against eighth seed Loh. Loh came out all guns blazing in the opening game and went for quick winners to take a 11-5 lead.
But Christie began engaging the Singaporean in longer rallies and relied on his defensive skills to force errors. The Indonesian won six straight points to draw level at 15-15 and then relied on quick net taps and down the line smashes to pocket the opening game.
In the second game, Loh needed time to get back his focus as he sprayed a couple of smashes wide. But once he found his rhythm, it looked like the eighth seed would take the match into the decider as he opened up a 17-13 lead by keeping Christie away from the net. The Indonesian, however, once again went for quick attacks and needed two match points to close out the match.
“In the second game when Loh started to come back, I held my nerves and adapted to the game better and managed to win,” said Christie.
The Indonesian will face Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi in the final who defeated Canada’s Victor Lai 21-9, 6-21, 22-20 in the other semis.
Earlier, reigning Olympic champion from South Korea, An Se Young, defeated former winner Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand 21-11, 21-7 while Chinese second seed Wang Zhi Yi got the better of compatriot and Tokyo Olympics gold medallist Chen Yu Fei 21-15, 23-21 in the women’s singles semi-finals.
Bird’s at it again
Birds once again disturbed play at the India Open on Saturday when particles of a nest fell on the court during the women’s doubles match between top seeds and reigning world champions Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning of China and sixth seeded South Koreans Baek Ha Na and Lee So Hee.
Just when Liu was about to serve with the Chinese pair leading 6-3 in the opening game, the particles fell as Liu tried to avoid them. The match was halted for a few minutes as the court was cleaned.
This was the second match during the tournament when birds disturbed play. On Thursday, a men’s singles second round match between HS Prannoy and Loh was halted twice due to bird droppings.
Danish shuttler Mia Blichfeldt had also complained about bird excreta on the practice courts of adjacent KD Jadhav Indoor Hall.
This is in addition to air pollution and cold conditions players have been complaining about with world No.3 Anders Antonsen pulling out due to the former. Monkeys also found their way into the stadium earlier in the tournament.
