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The Germans made history by having representatives in both the men’s and women’s finals for the first time.
The hosts had representatives in three of five events in the semifinals, but only Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan won their match to book a ticket to the finals on Sunday.
Ahsan/Hendra defeated Russian Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov 21-10, 20-22, 21-14 and will meet Ko Sung-hyun/Lee Yong-dae, who won over fellow Koreans either Shin Baek-choel/Yoo Yeon-seong.
Their victory salvaged hopes after the preceding matches dealt a blow to the many home fans inside the Istora Senayan and millions watching through live TV broadcasts.
In the men’s singles, Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka and Tommy Sugiarto, who both had taken out big names en-route to the semifinals, failed to march on.
Hayom was competitive up until only midway in the first game, as his opponent Malaysian Lee Chong Wei demonstrated his world’s best player status in rounding out the match, 21-17, 21-14.
Tommy fell short to reproduce his winning form that had defeated world No. 2 Chen Long. He was beaten 21-17, 21-10 by Marc Zwiebler, one of two German players to feature in the finals.
In the mixed doubles, Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir flopped against their rivals Joachim Fischer Nielsen/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark, 21-15, 21-14.
In the final, Fischer/Pedersen will face world No. 2 Zhang Nan/Zhao Yunlei of China, who beat compatriot world No. 1 Chen Xu/Ma Jin 21-15, 21-17.
It will be a German-Chinese tussle in the women’s singles final with world No. 3 Juliane Schenk taking on world No. 1 Li Xuerui.
Schenk upset world No. 2 and defending champion Saina Nehwal of India 12-21, 21-13, 21-14 while Li fought back from a game down to dispatch Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong 17-21, 21-11, 21-11.
There would have been no Indonesian representatives in any of the finals had Ahsan/Hendra failed to improve on their performance in the third game after they suffered jitters in the second game.
Ahsan/Hendra performed aggressively and used their lethal smashes to help them win 21-10.
The second game extended to deuce, which was won by the Russians.
In the decisive game, however, the home duo got back on their feet and crushed the Russians 21-14.
“At first, we were really nervous. But, knowing that we had huge support from the crowd, and the fact that we were the last Indonesian representatives to play a match, gave us added inspiration,” Ahsan said in a post-match press conference.
For the final showdown, both Ahsan and Hendra are not burdened by the added pressure of being the last Indonesian representatives. “We have played against both South Korean teams in several previous matches. It’s not about winning or losing, it’s about giving our best performance.”
In the earlier match, the world No. 3 team of Liliyana /Tontowi lost out to the Danes.
“They [Nielsen/Pedersen] were simply better. Meanwhile, we don’t think that we had played our best,” said Liliyana, who with Ahmad won two consecutive All England titles in 2012 and 2013.
After the recent result, the head-to-head record between the two pairs became 3-1 for the Danish team.
“We still haven’t got the perfect formula to beat them. I hope in future we can fix this,” said Liliyana of her opponents, who are bronze medalists of the 2012 Olympics, adding that Fischer was the true dangerous shuttler as he covered almost 80 percent of the court.
Fischer said that his team could read the Indonesian pair really well.
“Natsir is strong on the net, while Ahmad is good in the baseline. We just tried to mix them up,” he added.
It will be a mountainous task by Zwiebler against Chong Wei in the finals, with the German never winning in six matches, two of which were in past Indonesian Opens.
They met in the first round in 2009 and second round in 2010. On both occasions, Chong Wei went on to win the tournament titles by beating Taufik Hidayat in the final. Malaysia featured in the final the following year, this time Peter Gade becoming his victim.
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