Ronald Susilo and Chandra Wijaya qualify for main draw at Singapore Badminton Open

By REDintern Ng Enna. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Tuesday, June 15, 2010 — Ronald Susilo and his brother-in-law, Chandra Wijaya, swept aside duos from Vietnam and Singapore to qualify for the men’s doubles main draw in the Singapore Badminton Open.

Susilo, an ex-national shuttler and former world number six, and Wijaya, a holder of multiple titles in the men’s doubles scene, have never played together in a doubles tournament, but they overcame Nguyen Ngoc Tung and Tran Duc Phong from Vietnam in the first match despite a shaky start.

Susilo admitted that they had “not got into the game yet” for the first set and commented they were just warming up.

Both pairs gave away the first points with bad serves and were neck-and-neck in the first five minutes.

Susilo and Wijaya started trailing but they soon got back into the game and exerted pressure on the Vietnamese duo.

Unforced errors from the Vietnam pair gave Susilo and Wijaya an opportunity to extend their lead in the last five points before they eventually took the first set 21-16.

Vietnam drew first blood again in the second set but Susilo levelled with a smash.

With a series of impressive smashes and coordinated teamwork, Susilo and Wijaya soon raced to an 11-5 lead.

Pressure was on the Viets to turn the tables but Susilo and Wijaya held their fort. The Viets seemed to succumb under the stress and handed the match to Susilo and Wijaya, who took the second set 21-10.

“It was a new experience for me but Ronald and I supports each other,” commented Wijaya.

Susilo explained that he did not have time to train with his brother-in-law who just arrived in town yesterday but he said that “coordination was not a serious problem”.

In the second qualification match, the duo hardly broke a sweat as they swept aside the Singaporean pair of Huang Chao and Ngo Yi Chye 21-9, 21-7 in 15 minutes. Susilo’s and Chandra’s experience clearly showed as they outplayed their opponents to book their spot in the main draw.

“This is a totally brand new partnership,” said Ronald after his matches. “This tournament is held in Singapore and so he asked me to play since he didn’t have a partner. Badminton is our common passion and since it is Singapore, I wanted to be involved with the tournament.”

“Coming into the tournament, we didn’t practice at all! In fact, Chandra just came in last night!” continued Ronald.

“As a kid I’ve always enjoyed doubles, but you have to really depend on the other person in doubles. So I don’t really like that.”

When asked if the partnership could go beyond this tournament, Ronald said, “It is a possibility! But it depends on the availability of time. I would to focus on my academy at this point of time but Chandra might want to take part in more of tournaments.”

“Well, the real contest begins tomorrow! We’ll be up against England players in our opening match and we’ll take it round by round. No expectations, really,” commented Ronald.