Home » BWF World Championships 2022: “Minions” and other favorites fall

BWF World Championships 2022: “Minions” and other favorites fall

Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sakamuljo of Indonesia were eliminated at the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2022 by the English pair of Ben Lane and Sean Vendy, 15-21, 9-21.

The 17th-ranked Lane and Vendy entered the tournament unheralded as the 14th seed. Nevertheless, they only spent 29 minutes fending off the current world number one in men’s doubles. This conquest also avenged their loss to the Indonesian duo at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Gideon and Sukamuljo have been finding it hard to progress at the World Championships as of late, failing to duplicate their round of eight performances in 2017 and 2018. Previously, they were ousted in their first match in 2019.

Lane and Vendy will see another team of Indonesians as fifth seeds Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto try to avenge the “Minions”.

Another casualty in this stage of the tourney is now former mixed doubles titlists Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai of Thailand. They were stopped by Mark Lamsfuß and Isabel Lohau of Germany, 21-16, 21-14.

Lamsfuß and Lohau scored ten of the last 16 points to claim the first game. They completely deflated the opposition with six consecutive points to erect a 12-4 headway in the second game.

This is the Germans’ first-ever win against the second-ranked couple.

Meanwhile, Michelle Li of Canada hurdled past former world champion Ratchanok Intanon of Thailand, 25-23, 16-21, 21-13.

The first game was a back-and-forth struggle when Intanon recovered from a 12-17 deficit to equalize the tally at 18-all. However, she fell short when it mattered, as Li laid claim to the game.

Once again, the Thai stalwart pulled all stops and managed to force a deciding game. However, the Hong Kong-born Li never looked back when she went ahead, 10-3.

This is the second time Li overcame Intanon. The first was at the All England Open in 2018.