MINIONS WILL BE WARY OF HAN/ZHOU – MEN’S DOUBLES PREVIEW
小黃人將對韓周審慎以待：男雙前瞻
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2018
TEXT BY DEV SUKUMAR | BADMINTONPHOTO SHARE
Given their record this year, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon and Kevin Sanjaya Sukamul
jo will be brimming with confidence – but the presence of a certain Chinese p
air might just play at the back of their minds at the HSBC BWF World Tour Fina
ls 2018.
鑑於他們今年的戰績，吉迪翁與蘇卡穆約的信心滿滿。但今年賽季一對中國組合的出現，
可能在他們的腦海裡重複回放。
If there was one pair that got the goat of the Minions, it was China’s Han Ch
engkai/Zhou Haodong. The Indonesians suffered just five defeats in 67 matches
this year – two of those were against the young Chinese pair who – as recent
ly as last year – were still playing the qualifying events of the Superseries
(now World Tour 500 and above).
如果說有哪個組合能夠困擾小黃人，那定是中國的韓呈愷、周昊東。這對印尼組合在今年
六十七場賽事只遭遇了五敗，其中兩敗是這對中國年輕組合賜予的—韓周當時仍在參加超
級系列賽的資格賽。
The Minions first ran into Han/Zhou at the TOTAL BWF World Championships – wh
ich, given their stellar record going into the tournament – they were expecte
d to win. The Chinese gave the Indonesians a startling wake up call, nearly de
railing their campaign in the second round. While Gideon and Sukamuljo did ove
rcome the Chinese belatedly, they never quite recovered from the bruising seco
nd round clash and crashed out in the quarterfinals.
小黃人首次遭遇韓周是在今年的世錦賽。由於他們在各項賽事中出色的表現，大家預料他
們會贏。不過，這對中國組合給予印尼組合一記當頭棒喝，在世錦賽第二輪幾乎阻擋了蘇
吉。雖然吉迪翁與蘇卡穆約還是克服了韓周，但他們未能從第二輪慘烈比賽中的傷痕恢復
過來，然後就在四分之一決賽時被淘汰出局了。
But the Indonesians didn’t fare better in their next two clashes with the Chi
nese. They had won five of six World Tour events going into the VICTOR China O
pen, and there they were ambushed by Han and Zhou in the semi-finals. The very
next month, the Minions suffered their first defeat in a final this year as t
hey went down to the plucky duo in the YONEX French Open title clash.
在接下來兩次與韓周的遭遇中，這對印尼組合還是沒有表現地更好。他們在贏得五個巡迴
賽冠軍進軍中國公開賽時，就在半決賽階段遭到韓周伏擊。一個月後，小黃人在法國公開
賽冠軍戰中遭遇這對膽識十足的中國組合時輸球，這是他們今年首度在決賽中失利。
While two defeats in three matches won’t set alarm bells ringing for the Indo
nesians, it will be cause for concern.
雖然這三場比賽中的兩次吞敗，並未替印尼組合敲響警鐘，但引起了一些擔憂。
Still, that would a relatively minor worry in an astonishing season for Gideon
and Sukamuljo, whose form never dipped right through the season. They won eig
ht World Tour titles in nine finals, besides the Asian Games gold – a record
as impressive as any other in a calendar year.
不過對蘇卡穆約和吉迪翁而言，在這驚人的賽季裡，只是相對輕微的擔憂，畢竟本季他們
的狀態並未明顯下滑。他們在九個決賽裡贏得八座冠軍，還有亞運金牌，這記錄如同其他
的賽季一樣輝煌。
Having won the Dubai World Superseries Finals last year, the Minions looked fo
rward to defending their title and ending the year on a high.
繼去年贏得杜拜年終賽後，小黃人期望能夠衛冕冠軍，在顛峰結束這一年。
“We are obviously happy to be back competing in the Finals,” said Sukamuljo.
“What’s more important is that we want to finish as champions again. Right
from the early rounds the opposition will be tough because they are the world
’s top eight pairs. So we have to be ready to face any of them from the very
beginning.”
「我們很高興能重回年終賽，」蘇卡穆約說，「對我們來說更重要的是再次奪得冠軍。因
為都是來自前八的組合，所以前幾輪會很困難。我們從一開始就必須準備好面對其中任何
一組。」
Their opponents can expect no leeway from the Indonesians, who weren’t sated
despite winning eight titles this year.
這對印尼組合的對手大概不用期待他們會留有餘地， 他們儘管已贏得八項冠軍仍不滿足
於此。
“This year has been quite good for us, but I’m still not satisfied and there
’s still a lot to achieve,” said Gideon. “It is very important for us to do
well at the Finals. We want to go there and win again like we did last year.
”
「對我們來說今年的表現相當不錯，但我還是不滿意，而且還有很多目標要達成，」吉迪
翁說。「在年終賽裡取得好成績非常重要，我們想要像去年一樣再次獲勝。」
While most of the attention will be on the Minions, world champions Li Junhui/
Liu Yuchen and Denmark’s Kim Astrup/Anders Skaarup Rasmussen can be counted a
mong the front-runners.
雖然大部分的焦點都放在小黃人身上，但世錦賽冠軍中國雙塔跟丹麥的Kim Astrup/Ander
s Skaarup Rasmussen可算是這些組合中的佼佼者。
Li/Liu haven’t enjoyed great form recently, but they will be on home turf. Th
is was the year they emerged as the top Chinese duo, winning the Asian Champio
nships, leading their country to the Thomas Cup title, and clinching the World
Championships on home soil.
雙塔近期狀況不佳，不過這次他們是在主場出戰。今年他們逐漸成為頂尖的中國組合，贏
得了亞錦賽冠軍、率領他們的國家奪得湯盃，並在家鄉的土地上獲得世錦賽冠軍。
Li Junhui stated that, with the event at home, there was greater incentive for
the pair to be at their best: “Of course I want to grab the title! It will b
e a nice tournament. The competition system and the prize are very attractive.
”
李俊慧表示，在家鄉舉辦的比賽更能激勵他們全力以赴：「我當然想要奪得冠軍！這是一
項好比賽。競賽的體系跟獎品非常吸引人。」
Astrup and Rasmussen had a better season than their accomplished compatriots l
ike Conrad-Petersen/Kolding and Boe/Mogensen, winning the European Championshi
ps and then achieving their career-best result – a World Tour Super 1000 vict
ory in China.
比起已經功成名就的丹麥同胞——像是Conrad-Petersen/Kolding或Boe/Mogensen，Astru
p和Rasmussen在本賽季的表現更為出色。他們贏得了歐錦賽冠軍，而且達成生涯最佳成就
：中國1000賽冠軍。
There will be plenty of curiosity around the performances of Indonesia’s Moha
mmad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan. The 2015 world champions, who won the season final
e that year, refused to fade out despite spending over a season with other par
tners. With the Singapore Open victory and five World Tour semi-finals, the ve
terans proved they are far from being done at the elite level.
有許多人對於印尼組合山萬的表現投以好奇。這對2015年的世錦賽冠軍，贏得了當年的年
終賽冠軍後拒絕淡出，即便他們已經拆夥和其他人合作共度了一個賽季。今年他們贏得新
加坡公開賽、以及進入五場巡迴賽的半決賽階段，不過這兩位老兵證明他們目前遠未達到
菁英的水準。
“We were only back together this past year and personally I’m quite satisfie
d with our performances,” said Ahsan. “Obviously, there’s plenty in our gam
e that we need to improve and get better. We are just thankful to have come th
is far.”
「我們今年才重組回來，個人相當滿意我們的表現，」阿山說。「很明顯，我們的比賽裡
面有一堆問題需要改進。能走到目前這一步我們感到欣慰。」
Japan’s Hiroyuki Endo/Yuta Watanabe, and Chinese Taipei’s Wang Chi-Lin/Chen
Hung Ling and Liao Min Chun/Su Ching Heng have had modest success in terms of
winning titles – but the season finale has an element of unpredictability giv
en its format. The favourites will have to be at their best to ward off the le
ss-fancied names. Any slip will be fatal.
日本的遠藤大由和渡邊勇大，以及中華台北的陳宏麟、王齊麟和廖敏峻、蘇敬恆，在取得
冠軍頭銜方面而言有一些成績。不過，由於年終賽模式的原因，會有一些不可預測的因素
。奪冠的熱門組合，必須要盡力阻擋那些普遍不被看好的組合。任何失誤都會非常致命。
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l-be-wary-of-han-zhou-mens-doubles-preview/