They can do well in World Championship if the PBSI and Djarum not forcing them to celebrate for too long like last year Jordan/Debby
According to an unofficial news, with All-England Open 2017 ranking points, Gideon & Kevin will overtake GVS & TWK for BWF World no.1 position.
This pair surprised me with their new sponsor.. With new equipment Gideon Voutric Etune 70 which is not that popular . And Kevin continue using old racket Arcsaber 11 which I thought he has switched to Duora 10.
The racket does not define the player's performance. You are too fixated with a racket's brand and popularity.
Glad to be wrong about this pair. I didn't think they would be able to make it into the top 3, but obviously I was wrong. Kevin is getting better at interjecting himself into the rallies, even when the opponents focus their attack on Gideon. Gideon for his part has improved his defense and plays his role well. Can't wait to see their next tournament, Kevin is must watch for anyone who enjoys MD, even if you don't like his attitude.
Gideon is the one that surprises me. He was a front player with Kidho but he can now play Kidho's role as good as Kidho. Harder backcourt smash, tricky dropshot and he got good stamina to still play well in a long match. Kevin plays with less unforced error now while still retaining that weird returns that often confuse the opponent
The way this pair plays very much epitomises the Indonesian style of play except that KS is able to demonstrate this style at a faster pace and with his own flair. The modern Indonesian style of play tends to centre on “not lifting… whatever the circumstances”. This was how MA and HS played. It’s a great philosophy to work to but you must have the right skills, notably fast flat play but also exceptional touch and vision. The more I watch this pair play, the more I admire this way of playing. This pair are probably the smallest (shortest) of all the top mens players, yet they do not seem disadvantaged at all. What they lack in reach, they make up for in speed, to be able to cover the court just as well. By not lifting the shuttle, they are effectively taking away one of the advantages of taller opponents – the overhead shots. And bringing them down to their level. A good example of this is when they played against Liu/Li in the final or Conrad/Kolding in the Semis at the AE, they simply could not use their powerful and steep smashes. Taller players tend not to be able to twist and turn as quickly as smaller players generally, which allows them to play the rallies to their advantage. KS is quite exceptional though, he has fantastically fast racquet skills and movement, very fast reflexes and great vision. He reminds me a little of LCW in as far as his ability to accelerate quickly around the court with fly-like reflexes. Perhaps the weaker area of his game, would be his rear court ability. He doesn’t possess the most powerful smash but he mixes it up quite well. The trouble with playing to this style, imho, is it relies heavily on reaction speed, speed of movement and fast racquet skills which although both KS and MFG have in abundance, if they turn up with any of these attributes not quite working at 100%, they could find themselves in trouble. As good as Ahsan and Setiawan were, they had many “off-days” where they just either couldn’t play their normal game due to injury or just weren’t in the mood. Whereas if you compare it to the Chinese or Korean preferred way of playing, it is a little more forgiving as the pace of the rallies are generally a little slower although there is more smashing/defending.
perhaps, keeping him at the back and simply lifting the shuttle and holding off his Thank you for the post. I think in the last tournament, Li/Liu tried to go head to head with them on fast flat play. However in this kind of play, the Indonesians outclass them tremendously. They were having more points playing a more placement based, slower type of setup into a smash in the first set. Combine that with drives to the 2 back corners of the court, they would have had a better chance. They tried to go toe to toe with KS/GF and then lost confidence. I think Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan, arguably with less power than Li/Liu but makes it up with better defense and patience could have just contained Kevin Sanjaya to the back court and deprive them of playing a flat game. I'm saying that these two Indos are not hard back court hitters relative to their rivals. A slow game could break their momentum. I think the only current pair who can handle them is the Malaysian pair Goh/Tan, a more balanced pair.
Breaking News & Official Release: BWF World no.1 Men's Doubles as 16th March 2017 Congratulations to Marcus Fernaldi Gideon & Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo
I think, Gideon was injured during that time. They should have partnered Kevin with anyone for Rio. During Gideon's absence, I think he won 1 SS with another partner around olympics. (forgot which tournament).
Their fast flat and furious style reminds me very much of another pair who are around the same relatively short stature, the Japanese pair Kamura/Sonoda. Would love to see a serious battle between these two pairs. But unfortunately, this style is very demanding and tiring to maintain week in and week out. Easy to get injured, as Fernaldi had been last year. They will have to be selective as to which tournaments they want to peak for.
Reasons: 1. For 2016 Olympic Games, each country can only send 2 pairs and at that time, Indonesia top pairs are Ahsan/Setiawan and Angga Pratama/Ricky Karanda, thus PBSI coaching team will focus more on the top 2 pairs. 2. During the Olympic qualifying period, they faced tough opponents in SSP & SS events in the early round and their head to head records against the top pairs who qualified for the Olympic are quite bad, but these pairs are no longer playing together (especially in AEO 2017). vs Fu Haifeng/Zhang Nan 1-3 vs Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong 0-3 vs Endo/Hayakawa 0-1 vs Ahsan/Setiawan 1-2 3. Improvement in Gideon/Kevin's attacking & defending skills, mental toughness and game tactics in AEO 2017 compared to previous year.
kamura/sonoda beat them at the dubai ss finals in group play [https://bwf.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=F794939C-80B9-42B5-9BCB-97B1F842B8F1&draw=5] at this point in time kam/son are faster in foot speed & racket speed, and also have more a powerful flat game & smashes. during their dubai match you could see how gid/suk had difficulty with the speed of the japanese pair. gid/suk's speed was neutralized. every shot came back to them slightly harder and quicker than they are accustomed to dealing with.
Kevin partner Wahyu Nayaka and they won Indonesia Masters on 11th Sep'16, that was after the Olympic Games. Btw Indonesia Masters not a SS event, it's a GPG event.
they were a relatively new pair at the time they weren't nearly as good then as they are now i think they are the most improved pair since the olympics.
unfortunately the future of this pair might be short lived. kevin is 20, markus is 26. i would think tokyo 2020 is the last run for markus.
kevin/gideon doesn't really have a good tournament in there, even mads/mads beat them easily. watching their performance in all england, I think they've really improved their defense...much much better compared to last year...the problem with this pair just like someone else said in this thread, they'll find it harder when the opponent can slow their pace and play much slower game with good defense...they tend to get frustated (especially kevin) when the opponent can defend their attack and make them work harder, you can see in their match against mads/mads when the danish pair trying to slow the pace and just lift the shuttle, mads/mads defended so well and get everything back then kevin starting to make bad shot...they need to improve on this. in the future I really want to see this pair playing against goh/tan, the last time they meet was in india open last year and since then both pair have improved massively.