Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (L) and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon of Indonesia show their medals during the awarding ceremony for the men's doubles final at the Indonesia Open badminton tournament in Jakarta, Indonesia, July, 8. 2018. Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon claimed the title by defeating Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko of Japan with 2-0. (Xinhua/Zulkarnain)
JAKARTA, July 8 (Xinhua) -- Indonesia won the men's doubles and mixed doubles titles at the 2018 Indonesia Open to wrap up the tournament here on Sunday.
No. 1 seeds Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo and Marcus Fernaldi Gideon outclassed Japan's Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko 21-13, 21-16 in 31 minutes to win the men's title, underlining their superiority with a win record against the Japanese pairing that now stands at 4-0.
The Indonesian pair was stopped in the qualifying round of last year's tournament after Sukamuljo suffered from shoulder injuries.
Sukamuljo and Gideon earned 92,500 U.S. dollars in prize money for their win, while their Japanese rivals received 43,750 U.S dollars.
In the previous final match, Indonesia's top mixed doubles shuttlers Tontowi Ahmad and Lilyana Natsir successfully defended their title after beating Chan Peng Son and Goh Liu Ying of Malaysia 21-17, 21-8.
The final was a rematch of the 2016 Rio Olympics final where Tontowi and Lilyana won with scores of 21-14, 21-12.
"Thank God for the opportunity and health that made us champion again this time here," Tontowi told a press conference after his winning final match.
As he entered the badminton arena, Tontowi recalled that he felt tense seeing the enormous support of the spectators who expected to see the local heroes win.
"But deep in my heart, I had a conviction to win the match as we have our own playing patterns which have been running well so far," Tontowi added.
In earlier matches, Japan's Kento Momota won the men's singles title by beating Denmark's Viktor Axelsen 21-14, 21-9, while Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan defeated compatriots Mayu Matsumoto and Wakana Nagahara 21-14, 16-21, 21-14 to take the women's doubles title.
