Alfian and Ardianto retain men’s doubles title at YONEX All England
Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto retained their men’s doubles title with a 21-16 21-16 victory over Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik.
The defending champions became the second Indonesian champions of the day after Jonatan Christie won the men’s singles.
Their victory brought to a close the 2024 YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships which has seen record crowds descend on the Utilita Arena in Birmingham.
At its widest, Alfian and Ardianto had an eight-point advantage, but Chia and Soh showed their resolve to close the gap to five.
The Malaysian pair, who were looking to become the fifth different nation to triumph at the 2024 Championships, held off one game point but could not stop the seventh seeds from taking the game at the next opportunity.
In the second game, Alfian and Ardianto were not behind at any point although Chia and Soh levelled four times.
The Malaysians’ fight was again on display at 9-9 when Soh twice hit a shot while on the ground but they could not stop their opponents from again moving ahead.
Alfian and Ardianto gradually wore down the Malaysian pair and with three consecutive points claimed the win and retained their title.
Alfian said: “We are so happy and excited that the Indonesia team got two titles at the most prestigious tournament in the world, we hope the achievement will carry on.
“We thank everyone who has supported us along the way and we do hope that our achievement continues through the year.”
Soh said: “Overall, we are satisfied with our performance, we try to be consistent in every game but today we had to step up a level and be more consistent and we did our best today.
“Sometimes in badminton, it happens and we are not in good form and the opponent is playing very well so we try to get back and try to learn more from this experience.”
