PETALING JAYA: Indonesian shuttlers Fajar Alfian-Shohibul Fikri kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the World Tour Finals by reaching the semi-finals of the Australian Open.
One more spot is still up for grabs in the men’s doubles in the prestigious Tour Finals from Dec 17-21 in Hangzhou and Fajar-Shohibul, who only combined in July, are determined to make it their own.
Yesterday, the Indonesians combined brilliantly to topple India’s world No. 3 and top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty 21-19, 21-15 at the Sydney Olympic Park.
Reaching the semi-finals alone though will not be enough for Fajar-Shohibul as they need to make it into the final to book their place.
The duo are currently in 15th spot in the Race to Finals rankings with 58,790 points and need to overtake Thailand’s eight-placed Dechapol Puavaranukroh-Kittinupong Kedren (66,560 points).
Progressing into the final will earn Fajar-Shohibul 7,800 points which will be enough to overtake Dechapol-Kittinupong, who have skipped the tournament.
Standing in their way in the last four are fellow Indonesians Sabar Gutama-Moh Reza.
Sabar-Moh, who have assured themselves a spot in the Tour Finals for the second consecutive year at the seventh spot.
Fajar-Shohibul are keen to beat their teammates to earn a berth in the Finals.
“Definitely, we need a strong finish here (Australia) if we want to get to the Tour Finals but we don’t want to think too much about qualifying as we don’t want to put undue pressure on ourselves,” said Fajar in an interview posted in the Indonesian National Badminton Association (PBSI) website.
Fajar-Shohibul clicked instantly since forming a partnership, capturing the China Open title and finishing runners’ up in the Opens in Denmark, France and Korea.
