The defeat of the men's doubles pair Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Shohibul Fikri in the semifinals leaves Indonesia without a representative in the final of the 2026 Badminton Asia Championships.
In the match that took place at the Ningbo Olympic Arena, Ningbo, Saturday, Fajar/Fikri were defeated by the South Korean pair Kang Min Hyuk/Ki Dong Ju in a rubber game 13-21, 21-14, 16-21.
"Thank God, today's match went smoothly, although we were far from winning. But we fought hard. We made a lot of mistakes, and that's something we'll learn from and evaluate going forward," Fajar said, as quoted by PBSI.
Fikri admitted that the South Korean pair's game was very tight and often broke up his attack schemes.
"The opponent played very compactly, their defense was very neat, and that was our weakness in terms of power. This will be a point for us to evaluate," said Fikri.
