Indonesia claimed the Suhandinata Cup for the second time with a surprisingly dominant performance over favourites China in the final of the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2024.
China were flawless all week, but in the title bout the favourites let the pressure get to them, with several of their players appearing to panic when their challengers built up leads.
The Indonesians, on the other hand, were composed and exploited their opponents’ haste to close out the rallies. The result was that China, who had lost only one of 50 encounters in the run-up to the final, lost nine of 10 on Saturday.
The Indonesian team with the Suhandinata Cup
The only match that went their way was the opening contest between Xu Wen Jing and Mutiara Ayu Puspitasari. Indonesia’s women’s doubles pair of Isyana Syahira Meida/Rinjani Kwinara Nastine completely overturned the team’s fortunes in the second match, converting a four-point deficit into a seven-point lead for the third match. The Indonesians were high-energy and attack-minded, disallowing the Chinese pair of Chen Fan Shu Tian and Liu Jia Yue any momentum. The women’s doubles result appeared to give Indonesia renewed belief.
The lead was consolidated in men’s singles by Moh. Zaki Ubaidillah, who was adventurous enough to unveil some tricky netshots that had his opponent Hu Zhe An gaping. At the half-way mark, Indonesia’s men’s doubles of Anselmus Breagit Fredy Prasetya and Pulung Ramadhan had built up a seven-point lead, and that was to widen further, to a 15-point gap by the eighth match.
China’s doubles coaches in disbelief at the proceedings
The final handover happened with Ubaidillah securing a 12-point lead, and Prasetya and Ramadhan endured some late jitters to take Indonesia home, 110-103.
“It’s very exciting,” said junior head coach Ignatius Nunung Subandoro. “We last won in 2019 and we’ve waited to win another one. Last year in Spokane we were runners-up. At the Asia Championships in Indonesia, China swept all the titles, so we wanted to become champions in China.
“We knew our chances were 50-50 because we know each other’s game. We followed good strategy. We made ourselves the underdogs, so we could play in a relaxed manner. Every morning we talked together and prayed together; in a team match you must do everything together.”
Beaten semifinalists Malaysia and Japan were both awarded bronze medals.
USA beat Denmark
Earlier, in the playoffs for overall positions, USA continued to impress, beating European powers Denmark for seventh place. Chloe Ho/Ella Lin turned it around for USA in the last match, from a 92-99 deficit to 110-104.
Chinese Taipei were easy winners over India 110-87 for fifth place. Three-time winners Korea finished 13th.
Overall Rankings:
1.Indonesia
2.China
3.Malaysia, Japan
5.Chinese Taipei
6.India
7.USA
8.Denmark
9.Thailand
10.France
11.United Arab Emirates
12.Poland
13.Korea
14.Turkiye
15.England
16.Estonia
17.Vietnam
18.Hong Kong China
19.Sri Lanka
20.New Zealand
21.Singapore
22.Slovenia
23.Netherlands
24.Peru
25.Philippines
26.Australia
27.Norway
28.Macau China
29.Slovakia
30.Mauritius
31.Latvia
32.Cook Islands
33.Portugal
34.Armenia
35.Azerbaijan
36.Trinidad & Tobago
37.Uganda
38.Mongolia
39.Northern Mariana Islands
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