Last year, the participants in the second men's doubles semi-final from Indonesia and Taiwan met twice before, with the Indonesians Mohammad Shohibul FIKRI and Daniel MARTHIN winning the match each time.
Will the Indonesians win the match again today? Well, let's start by saying that it remained exciting until the very last moment. Fang-Chih LEE and his brother Fang-Jen LEE fell slightly behind at the start, but never by more than three points, then caught up again and took the lead after 9:9. However, they were unable to open up a significant lead and handed the court back to FIKRI/MARTHIN at 15:15. The Indonesians won the first set.
The brothers from Taiwan took an early lead in the second set. However, FIKRI/MARTHIN caught up again at 2:5. The four protagonists on the court then thrilled the crowd with fast-paced rallies, smash duels and masterful defence against the 400 km/h shuttles. At 20:19, LEE/LEE had set point for the first time and the prospect of a deciding set. However, this was successfully fended off by the Indonesians, as were three further set points by the Taiwanese. At 24:24, the Indonesians finally managed to score two points in a row.
After an entertaining 58 minutes, FIKRI/MARTHIN decided the semi-final in their favour with a final score of 21:17 and 26:24.
