Coming into the KAPAL API Indonesia Open 2024, Man Wei Chong and Tee Kai Wun hadn’t even won a match at an HSBC BWF World Tour Super 1000 tournament.

A first round takedown of world champions Kang Min Hyuk/Seo Seung Jae was a sign of things to come. On Saturday, the Malaysians kept their nerve at crucial moments against home hopefuls Sabar Karyaman Gutama/Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani in a raucous cauldron rooting for the Indonesians and were rewarded with a final place.

“At the ending points I talked with my partner and said we have to relax, win or lose doesn’t matter,” said Tee. “We didn’t think we could go to the final. Beating the Korean pair gave us confidence and we could continue.”

Man Wei Chong said their job “wasn’t done yet”.

“We’ve lost to Liang/Wang three times, and tomorrow we will have to play our best. For sure, we feel happy but our job isn’t done yet, so we need to keep the momentum.”

Faceoff Between An, Chen

In women’s singles, it will be An Se Young versus Chen Yu Fei for the second final in two weeks. Chen fought past Carolina Marin in three games, and will have her chance at overturning the result from last week’s Singapore Open final.

The men’s singles final will be a repeat of the PETRONAS Malaysia Open 2024 final with Shi Yu Qi taking on Anders Antonsen.

WHAT THEY SAID

“I’m really proud of myself that I won today. It is probably in the top 5 of the hardest matches I’ve played in my career, so it’s fantastic. It was a battle in there. I rushed it a bit in the end of the second game and I had to play an extra one and a half games because of that. This is a match I’m going to look back on and say, ‘That was crazy!’ – Anders Antonsen comes through a 91-minute marathon

“In the third game I made many mistakes as I was tired. It’s OK, the tournament went well for me. Antonsen was very strong mentally.” – Kunlavut Vitidsarn on his loss to Antonsen

“Marin was very quick and I was able to defend well and my tactics worked well. I was quite satisfied with my performance in the third game as I increased my speed, so I’m happy I found the solutions. This definitely gives me more confidence.” – Chen Yu Fei

“This year I wanted to make big improvement, so I was focussed on the process and not on the results. I was a bit disappointed at not qualifying to the Olympics, but this was a good chance for me to prepare for the future.” – Wang Zhi Yi, after her loss to An Se Young

“Overall I was quite satisfied, but our lack of consistency was the reason we lost. We were close to them and then they overtook us, we could never overtake them. I will keep this mindset for the Australian Open, so I hope we will be 100 per cent focussed on that and then only I will focus on my personal stuff.” – Lai Pei Jing, on an eventful week

→Results (Semifinals)
→Order of Play (FInals)