No more worlds for daddies Hendra-Ahsan

PETALING JAYA: Indonesian veteran badminton stars Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan have waved goodbye to the World Championships.

The famous daddies who have won three world titles together officially played their last match at the prestigious tournament when they lost 19-21, 17-21 to South Korea’s world No. 6 Kang Min-hyuk-Seo Seung-jae in the quarter-finals at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen on Friday.

“My last World Championships ended today (Friday),” confirmed both Hendra and Ahsan on their social media pages.

Hendra turned 39 on Friday while Ahsan will turn 36 next month.

Hendra-Ahsan were one of Indonesia’s best performers in the men’s doubles along with world No. 15 Shohibul Fikri-Bagas Maulana, who went down fighting 18-21, 21-15, 14-21 to China’s world No. 3 Liang Weikeng-Wang Chang in the last eight.

Hendra-Ahsan won silver last year after losing to national pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik in Tokyo.

Hendra had captured his first world crown along with former partner Markis Kido in 2007 in Kuala Lumpur and then went on to win three more titles with Ahsan in 2013 (Guangzhou), 2015 (Jakarta) and 2019 (Basel).

Despite falling short this time, Hendra-Ahsan still managed to outperform most of their teammates.

World No. 1 Fajar Alfian-Rian Arianto fell to a shock 18-21, 19-21 loss to Taiwan’s world No. 21 Lee Jhe-huei-Yang Po-hsuan as early as the second round while world No. 10 Leo Rolly-Daniel Marthin went down 15-21, 21-19, 9-21 to India’s world No. 2 Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty in the third round.

Overall, the tournament has been a letdown for the Indonesian men’s doubles pairs as none managed to win a medal.

This was disappointing as the event has contributed 10 golds, six silvers and 10 bronzes for Indonesia – higher than any other country.