How All England Champions Marcus and Kevin Make it to the Top at a Young Age

Kevin, left and Marcus with the 2018 All England trophies. (Photo courtesy of PBSI)

Jakarta. Indonesia’s men’s doubles pair Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo just won the 2018 All England Open on Sunday (18/03) beating the world’s number two Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen of Denmark by straight game 21-18 21-17.

With the win, Marcus and Kevin now have won the All England twice, having defended the title since 2017, which made them now leveling the achievements of Indonesia’s men’s doubles legend Rexy Mainaky and Ricky Subagja who won the same title twice in 1990s.

The minions, nickname given to Marcus and Kevin describing their small bodies, have just been paired since 2015, and suddenly climbed to the top within two years as the pair became the world’s number one in the rank published by Badminton World Federation (BWF) in March 2017, an acknowledgement they’ve held until now.

During 2017, the pair won seven BWF super series events, including three titles in super series premier, a more prestigious classified tournaments; All England, Malaysia Open and China Open, which in turn will add greater points in the BWF rank.

The other super series titles they won in 2017 were India Open, Japan Open, Hong Kong Open and a super series finals in Dubai, which were enough to make the minions received the 2017 BWF male players of the year award, an award rarely given to doubles pair players.

How They Conquer All England

The All England Open, the world’s oldest badminton tournament, has been high in prestige for shuttlers and minions were a bit surprised when they first won the title in 2017.

“I did not expect to win All England this fast, this is a dream come true,” Kevin said after the 2017’s triumph. “The All England has been my childhood dream,” he added.

“I still can’t believe we are the champions,” Marcus replied at the time.

The minions got past the All England’s 2017 edition with five matches they all won, including beating their senior fellow Hendra Setiawan who played as independent representatives with Malaysian Boon Heong Tan in the round of 32.

Of those five matches, the Indonesian pair had only one game they finished with rubber sets, which was occurred in the semifinals where they saw off Denmark’s Mads Conrad-Petersen and Mads Pieler Kolding 19-21 21-13 21-17 after an hour battle.

“The hardest test was actually when they faced the Dannish pair in the semifinal, and luckily my boys were more ready mentally,” said the minions’ coach Herry Pierngadi at the time.

China’s Li Junhui and Liu Yuchen were the last test Kevin and Marcus faced in the 2017 edition, and with only 35 minutes, they made it to be crowned the gold medals after convincingly winning by 21-19 21-14.

In the 2018 edition, the minions also played five matches in the tournament which typically involved more than 300 elite shuttlers.

They beat fellow Indonesians Angga Pratama and Rian Saputro before seeing off Malaysia’s Ong Yew Sin and Teo Ee Yi in the round of 16 by rubber sets 21-17 20-22 21-13.

In the quarterfinals, they conquered Taiwan’s Cheng Hung Ling and Wang Chi-Lin 21-15 21-13.

“They [Cheng and Wang] did more mistakes than us, so we had more advantage through it,” Kevin said last week, as quoted on the Indonesian Badminton Federation (PBSI)’s website.

In the semifinals, Kevin and Marcus faced the same opponents they had last year, Petersen and Kolding. This time the world’s sixth ranked Dannish pair was beaten by straight game 11-21 19-21.

Kevin, left, and Marcus in action in the 2018 All England semifinals. (Reuters Photo/Peter Cziborra)

In the final held on Sunday in Birmingham, United Kingdom, Kevin and Marcus just needed 42 minutes to finish their older opponents from Denmark, Boe and Mogensen.

“We lost to the world’s best pair and we’re proud that as the number two, we’re now probably the only pair who can beat them,” Mogensen said on Badminton Europe after the game.

“We made some mistakes in last minutes, but they [the minions] are the best,” he added.

Boe, 37 and Mogensen, 34, now have had four wins and four loses in the head-to-head record with their younger counterparts. But the minions have won the last three meetings, including the Sunday’s final.

“Again, I did not expect to win All England twice in a row. The road has been binding. It wasn’t easy,” 27-year-old Marcus said after the final.

“Each time they threatened to get a grip on the proceedings, the title-holders conjured up amazing plays to keep their nose in front,” BWF reported on its website about the final game.

“The spectacular manner in which the duel concluded was a moment of sheer brilliance, compliments the ever-entertaining Sukamuljo.

“Anticipating a shot from Boe perfectly, the pint-sized player rushed to net and, jumping forward, pulled off a stunning backhand smash that gave the Europeans no chance; the world No.1 pair falling to the court in relief as much as in celebration of the 21-18 21-17 conquest.”

Marcus and Kevin were the only Indonesians who reached the final stage in Birmingham.

“Defending a title is never easy. One year is a long time. A lot of things can happen. We have to maintain our level so this victory means a lot to us,” said 21-year-old eccentric Kevin, who often showed unique magic tricks, including changing his racket on the sideline whilst the game is running.

“I often analyses next opponents in a tournament, learning their weaknesess,” Kevin said of one of his recipes to win games.

After the event, the Sports Ministry awarded the pair bonus worth Rp 500 million ($36,450), same amount they received last year after winning the same title.

“Congratulations for Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya who’ve defended the All England title. Keep it up to make another achievements. Indonesians are proud,” President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo said on Monday through his Twitter account @jokowi.

Indonesia has won 46 titles in All England since the tournament’s first formation 108 years ago.

Records Obtained

The minions, which felt losing the last time in October to China’s Liu Cheng and Zhang Nan in Denmark, now levels a record of winning All England’s men’s doubles title twice in a row, a record which was only ever claimed by two pairs, their seniors Rexy and Ricky in 1995 and 1996, and South Korea’s pair Kim Moon-Soo and Park Joo-Bong in 1985 and 1986.

The minions were also included in the world’s 10 richest shuttlers, according to data gathered in 2017 by Badzine.net.

Marcus and Kevin were ranked seventh in the list, with each possessing $186,625 prize money, calculated from the BWF tournament prizes they ever won.

The pair also recorded the all-time most titles ever won in a year by a men’s doubles pair in the super series events, since they had collected seven titles in 2017, which beat the past record in 2015, when South Korea’s Lee Yong-Dae and Yeon-Seong won six titles.

The world super series is BWF’s second most prestigious events, which are held annually. It is only reckoned lower than the BWF major events such as the Sudirman Cup, Thomas Cup, Uber Cup and World Championships which are typically held once in two years, apart from the other major one the Olympics game.

Accidentally Paired

Marcus and Kevin were paired in 2015, after which they joined the “Pelatnas”, an Indonesian abbreviation meaning for ‘National Training Center’, which is often related to an elite camp for national athletes.

The badminton Pelatnas is located in Cipayung, East Jakarta and organized by the national sport federation PBSI who can expel athletes who don’t perform well from the program. In 2018, PBSI announced it will train 104 shuttlers who are all resided in a dormitory.

Marcus, whose father Kurniahu Gideon was also a national athlete in 1980s, joined the Pelatnas in 2011, followed by Kevin who came in two years later in 2013.

Before joining the Pelatnas, Kevin had been nurtured at a local club PB Djarum in Central Java since 2007, while Marcus had been at West Jakarta’s PB Tangkas since he was 9 years old.

Before being admitted by PB Djarum, Kevin was rejected by the club in a three-staged audition held in 2006, when he was just 10 years old, according to a report by Kompas.

“They were trivialized because they are relatively small. But then they now have proved who they are,” said Indonesia’s Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat last year after the pair won their first All England trophies.

It turns out that the 170-centimeter-tall Kevin and 167-centimeter-tall Marcus were accidentally paired because each of their partners were unavailable, according to a story from Marcus’ father Kurniahu, as reported by Metro TV.

Marcus’ partner at the time Markis Kido, the 2008’s Olympic gold medalist, told him to find another partner after a series of hip injuries. At the same time in early 2015, Kevin’s partner Stevanus Gabriel was also injured.

The PBSI has paired them since then and it first gained the output when they clinched their first major title in October 2015 after winning gold medals at the Chinese Taipei Masters Grand Prix, a one-level lower than the super series.

The pair gradually rose to won more medals in 2016, with three super series titles including India Open, Australian Open and China Open and two grand prix titles; Malaysia Masters and Indonesian Masters.

Good Attitude in Training

Athletes at the Cipayung’s Pelatnas could take badminton training up to five hours a day, accumulated from one session in the morning and one in the evening.

They could finish badminton activities averagely at 8 p.m., according to some reports.

The pair, well-known for its quick-thinking decisions and speed of play, has been taking training to the fullest, one of their counterparts witnessed.

“They are discipline and diligent in training,” said the other Pelatnas athlete Vita Marissa on PBSI’s twitter account @INAbadminton.

“The pair is a complete package, they’re special. It can been seen on their mentality, techniques and the way they train,” she added.

Vita said that Marcus always does additional training individually in the morning, right after the coaches’ session.

“And Kevin, I’ve known him since child. He always challenges others to play, he really likes playing badminton,” said Vita, who was also groomed at Kevin’s club PB Djarum.

Kevin and Marcus’ coach Herry Pierngadi, who’s been coaching at Pelatnas since 1993, was also granted a Rp 100 million bonus by the Sports Ministry after the 2018 All England win.

“Their commitments can’t be doubted, incredible. They’re both fighters, they don’t accept losing,” Herry said of the minions.

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Writing by Amal Ganesha for the Jakarta Globe