Anthony will meet Kevin Cordon, an unseeded Guatemalan player, who has beaten the odds to go through to the semifinals.
By
AGUNG SETYAHADI FROM TOKYO, JAPAN
·4 minutes read
AFP/ALEXANDER NEMENOV
Indonesia\'s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting celebrates after beating Denmark\'s Anders Antonsen in their men\'s singles badminton quarter final match during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo on July 31, 2021.
TOKYO, KOMPAS — Indonesian shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting will face an opponent who is hardly known to the badminton world to fight for a bronze medal in the men\'s singles event at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics on Monday (2/8/2021).
Anthony will meet Kevin Cordon, an unseeded Guatemalan player, who has beaten the odds to go through to the semifinals. His march to the final four has not only has taken many by surprise but also has been hailed back home in his Latin American country as a great achievement, making him a national hero.
Cordon was in a relatively light group given the participants’ moderate rankings on average compared to world’s top players. However, Cordon, who does not regularly participate in world-level tournaments, endured some tough challenges.
He set out his fairytale journey with a scalp of world number nine Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong in two games and eventually progressed to the next stage as a Group D winner. In the round of 16, he defeated Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands, followed by a victory over Heo Kwang-hee of South Korea in the quarterfinals.
His march then came to a halt, but not before he had posed strong challenge in his semifinal match against Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, one of the tournament’s favorites, on Sunday (1/8). Axelsen acknowledged that he experienced a bout of frustration in the first game as he was stretched to the limit by his opponent.
AFP/ALEXANDER NEMENOV
Indonesia\'s Anthony Sinisuka Ginting hits a shot to Russia\'s Sergey Sirant in their men\'s singles badminton group stage match during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo on July 28, 2021.
As an unseeded player, Cordon will take to the court with a psychological edge because he may expect to play more freely for the bronze medal against fifth seed Anthony. At the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza on Sunday, Cordon said he would fight until the end on Monday and take on whoever he met there as if he were an opponent in the final match.
Mentality shape
Cordon\'s high motivation to bring home an Olympic medal has become a focus for Anthony. He said he was mentally prepared to face the opponent, who was expected to play without reserve.
"I will try to be more focused and enjoy the game because it\'s a decisive one. I really want it [the medal], but I don\'t want to think about it too much. It\'s more important to think about how to recover physically and mentally," said Anthony, who was beaten by defending champion, Chen Long of China, 16-21, 11-21, in the semifinals on Sunday.
To realize it, Anthony will need to fire up his motivation and approach the Cordon encounter as a final match.
While trying not to be preoccupied with his medal target, Anthony said that bringing home an Olympic medal was his dream. To realize it, Anthony will need to fire up his motivation and approach the Cordon encounter as a final match. He has to anticipate Cordon’s psychologically unburdened game as an underdog.
"Mentally, he may have nothing to lose because he is a non-seeder. He will play audaciously, so I have to be ready for that and have to be restrained," Anthony said.
Meanwhile, speaking about his loss in the semifinals, a territory he had not expected to advance to at Tokyo 2020, Cordon said he had raised his game to shock Axelsen. Tokyo is his fourth Olympics appearance after Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016,. However, coming to the competition as a player with little competitive experience in high-level tournaments, he found it a difficult task to beat the world\'s top player.
The bronze medal match between Anthony and Cordon, as well as the gold contest featuring Axelsen up against Chen Long on Monday will finish up the Tokyo 2020 badminton competition.
AFP/ALEXANDER NEMENOV
Guatemala\'s Kevin Cordon hits a shot to Denmark\'s Viktor Axelsen in their men\'s singles badminton semi-final match during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza in Tokyo on August 1, 2021.
Earlier in the afternoon, there will be the women\'s doubles final match, in which Indonesia is pinning its last hope for gold on Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu, who will take on second seeds Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China.
