Jakarta (ANTARA) - Indonesian men's singles badminton champion Jonatan Christie failed to advance into the semi-finals of the 2019 Blibli Indonesia Open tournament after being defeated by Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan. Competing at the Bung Karno Sports Stadium, Senayan, here Friday, July 19, the player who is more familiarly known as ‘Jojo’ was overthrown by fourth seed Chou in three games that lasted for 76 minutes with the score at 21-16, 18-21, 14-21 in the Super 1000 level badminton tournament.

In the first game, Jojo did not have much difficulty facing Chou. From the beginning to the end, Jojo continued to lead the numbers. At the start, Jojo was 2-1 ahead. Chou then fought back to equalize and bring the score up to 15-14. Thereafter, Jojo managed to fight back and ended the game at 21-16.

In the second game, Jojo and Chou played a cliffhanger chasing each other point for point. The game opened with Chou taking the lead 2-1. However, Jojo turned the tables and the scoreline changed to 5-4. Then Chou roared back to lead 6-5.

The score changed again with Jojo clawing his way back to 13-12, but the scores soon reached 16-16. Thereafter, Jojo was left behind and Chou closed the second game at 21-18.

In the decisive game, Jojo seemed too overwhelmed by his opponent’s game, although at the beginning the score was 3-3. However, after that Jojo continued to trail and at one point the score read 18-12 in favor of Chou. Jojo was unable to catch up and finally, Chou took the match at 21-14.

Jonatan and Chou have previously met on the field seven times, namely since the 2015 BCA Indonesia Open tournament. Of the seven meetings, Jonatan won six.

Jojo's only defeat to Chou was in the TOTAL BWF Sudirman Cup 2019 event where he lost 11-21, 13-21.

Before entering the quarter-finals of this tournament, Jojo defeated Denmark's Hans-Kristian Solberg Vittinghus in straight games, 22-20, 21-13 in the second round Thursday, July 18.


Translator: Rr Cornea Khairany/Eliswan Azl
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2019