PHL men’s team looks to put badminton lessons to good use
By Michael Angelo S. Murillo
Senior Reporter
GOT to compete against quality competition at the 2020 Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships, the Philippine national men’s team is not letting the lessons it got go to waste and looks to put them to good use as it girds for more tournaments ahead.
Had their journey stopped by defending champion and top seed Indonesia in the quarterfinals of the tournament held at the Rizal Memorial Coliseum on Feb. 14, the Filipino shuttlers said they would have wanted to go deeper but nonetheless happy with their showing and grateful for the opportunity to play in such a setup and test their skills.
The Philippines lost to Indonesia, 3-0, in the quarterfinals of the team championships which was set to conclude later yesterday.
“I’m happy that we got to play in this tournament. Our opponents here you only get to play in the Super Series which is only reserved to those in the top 32, especially Indonesia,” said Filipino singles player Lanz Safra, who was the last player to see action before the Philippines was officially eliminated.
“It was a good experience for us as we were able to expose ourselves in such a level of competition and it provided the team an opportunity to further develop our game for future competitions,” added the 18-year-old.
World number five player Anthony Ginting put the reigning champion on the board with a sweep of Ros Pedrosa, 21-10, 21-16, in the first singles match on Friday.
In the second match, the Filipino doubles tandem of Ariel Magnaye and Alvin Morada provided the challenge against Mohammad Hasan and Hendra Satiawan, leading, 7-6, early on. But the Indonesians regrouped thereafter, and took the frame at 21-16.
The Indonesians then buckled down to work and dominated the second at 21-12 for the insurmountable 2-0 advantage.
Needing to win to extend their bid, Mr. Zafra tried his best versus world seventh-ranked player and reigning Asian Games champion Jonatan Christie but the latter just would not budge on his way to the 21-11, 21-14 victory and the 3-0 win that pushed them to the semifinals.
In three games in the Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships, the Philippine men’s team finished with a 1-2 record, its lone victory a gutsy 3-2 win over Singapore on its final group game on Feb. 12.
As of this writing, disputing the finals for the men’s side is Indonesia and Malaysia while for the women’s side it is between defending champion Japan and Korea.
The Badminton Asia Manila Team Championships is organized by the Philippine Badminton Association and is backed by Smart Communications Inc., MVP Sports Foundation, Leisure and Resorts World Corporation, Cignal and TV5.
