Singapore Open: Hoki/Kobayashi’s ‘Stubbornness’ Vindicated
Going title-less a whole year proved challenging but the newly-crowned Singapore Open 2023 men’s doubles winners Takuro Hoki and Yugo Kobayashi have been rewarded for sticking to their guns.
· PREM KUMAR
The 2021 world champions found success hard to come by after winning the 2022 Malaysia Open in July and went through a rocky patch before the 21-13 21-18 victory over Liang Wei Keng/Wang Chang at the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday ended their year-long heartache.
Reflecting on their journey, Kobayashi said: “Although it’s been a rough road, we never gave up. We adopted a positive attitude in all our matches. We stayed stubborn, we believed if we continued the same approach, we were bound to win eventually.”
Hoki added: “We’ve been waiting for this a long time. We are relieved but we take this as a form of motivation, that we can be among the Olympic medal contenders.”