Wardani, Christie Take Indonesia to Safety

Putri Kusuma Wardani

Wardani, Christie Take Indonesia to Safety

Indonesia overcame an early setback from India to prevent any unexpected setbacks on their road to making the quarterfinals of the TotalEnergies BWF Sudirman Cup Finals 2025.

The Indians, fielding a mostly second-rung team, blew the contest wide open in the opening Group D encounter with Dhruv Kapila/Tanisha Crasto edging past Rehan Naufal Kusharjanto/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja 10-21 21-18 21-19.

“It was very stressful, especially towards the end when we were down, but we held our nerves. Dhruv supported me well and we were able to get back. We’re happy that we went all in and scored the first point for our team,” said Crasto.

That set up the contest for the Indians with Pusarla V Sindhu going in as favourite against Putri Kusuma Wardani. However, the Indonesian stood up well to the challenge, and somewhat surprisingly dominated the exchanges from start to finish to put her team on level terms in just 38 minutes.

HS Prannoy kept India’s hopes alive by taking the opening game against Jonatan Christie, but the Indonesian gained control as the match progressed and took the team to safety with a 19-21 21-14 21-12 result.

“It was an important point for Indonesia, it wasn’t easy. In the first game I was a bit nervous, but I wanted to look at the conditions of the arena,” said Christie.

“It’s been long since I played him in 2022. He has good experience in big events and it’s not easy to play him. We both are similar players, you must use your physicality. I think my better fitness made the difference today.”

Indonesia were favourites in the remaining doubles and despite some hiccups in the men’s doubles, duly closed out the contest 4-1.

Smooth Sailing for France, Malaysia

There were no surprises either in the other three ties of the day. Japan beat France 5-0 in Group C, with the only flutter coming in men’s singles when Enogat Roy took the opening game from Koki Watanabe.

In the same group, Malaysia swept past Australia 4-1, with Australia’s consolation point coming in women’s doubles when Gronya Somerville/Angela Yu beat Go Pei Kee/Carmen Ting 21-15 21-18.

In Group D, Denmark blew past England 5-0, with the last point coming from scratch women’s doubles combination Alexandra Boje and Line Christophersen over Abbygael Harris and Annie Lado.

“I have played women’s doubles before – at the World Junior Championships,” said Christophersen, Denmark’s No.4 women’s singles player. “This was just an experient. It was fun to play with Alexandra.”

“She’s really fast and it was nice for me,” complimented her partner Boje. “I can just move forward and I know she’s behind me. She definitely has some good strokes from behind, like slices and smashes from the backline, and a lot of power. I think we did quite good today. We kept it quite short on court and we were focussed all the time. In this event it’s fun and we’re doing it for the team.”

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