Ahsan and Setiawan: The Second Coming
The ‘Minions’ were favourites to win their hat-trick of titles at the Yonex All England. Instead, it was the ‘Daddies’ who stole the show.
· DEV SUKUMAR
Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan – christened ‘Daddies’ by their legions of Indonesian fans – completed a remarkable conquest in their second innings together. If this second iteration is anything to go by, there may yet be more peaks that will be scaled.
The high points of Ahsan and Setiawan’s first innings were world titles in 2013 and 2015, an Asian Games gold in 2014, and a clutch of Superseries titles – including two World Superseries Finals crowns. But, following a loss of form and stints with different partners, the two got back together early last year.
They didn’t quite set the circuit afire, but there was an uptick in their performances compared to 2016. A high point was their Singapore Open win in July 2018, followed later by semifinals in Denmark, China and Hong Kong, and their qualification to the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals.