Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir determined to maintain their current winning run – Badminton news
Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, who have been struggling to grab a major title for the last six months, have finally found their winning rhythm back as they clinched two consecutive titles in two back-to-back tournaments.
They are determined to maintain their winning form in the upcoming events particularly 2012 London Olympics, starting from July.
In the opening week of the current month, the World Number Four Tontowi and Liliyana delivered superb performance and secured Mixed Doubles title at All England Open Premier Super Series 2012.
They continued their winning run in last week’s Swiss Open GP Gold and grabbed the title proving that they are in prime form and are also in perfect condition to live up to expectations in Olympics.
Liliyana, who have been suffering with injuries in the last couple of years, has finally got back on the track at the right time as the qualifying round for Olympic Games will be over in a month’s period and her existing performance will help the duo to
get a better seeding in Mixed Doubles draw at Olympic Games.
Tontowi and Liliyana showed an elevated performance in All England Open and Swiss Open and thrashed many top shuttlers in the arena of badminton.
They continued their impressive play in both tournaments and emerged as the winners on each occasion.
While talking about two back-to-back victories in a period of two weeks, Liliyana stated that both shuttlers were determined on the court and did not want to lose to any opponent.
She said, “We’re a bit tired after the All England, but we didn’t want to waste our chance at winning this tournament. This title is proof that we’re in top physical shape and we’ll try to maintain this until the Olympics.”
Tontowi and Liliyana will remain busy before Olympic Games as they have a tough schedule ahead of the mega event.
Their next tournament will be Australian Open GP Gold, which will be played from April 3-8 at Sydney, Australia.
After that, Tontowi and Liliyana will move to China where they will participate in Asian Championships.
Their last major tournament before the end of Olympic qualifying round will be India Open Super Series, from April 24-29, where the Indonesian will be defending champions.
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