Suhandinata Cup 2026: Malaysia Sweep Indonesia to storm into Final
Malaysia's junior badminton team booked its place in the 2026 Suhandinata Cup final with a clinical 2-0 semi-final win over Indonesia on Friday, riding big swings in doubles play to overcome an early singles setback at the Victor BWF World Junior Championships in Cairo.
The top seeds needed every bit of their doubles depth to shake off a fast start from Indonesia, the 2024 champions, before closing out both sets of the five-discipline, relay-scored tie in increasingly comfortable fashion. The result sends Malaysia through to Saturday's final and guarantees the team its first Suhandinata Cup medal since an empty-handed campaign a year ago in India, while Indonesia settles for bronze as a losing semi-finalist.
Indonesia struck first. Fardhan R. Joe dispatched Tiew Wei Jie 11-6 in the opening boys' singles rubber to put the Garuda Muda ahead early. But Malaysia answered immediately through girls' doubles pair Genevie Lim and Low Zi Yu, who blitzed Atresia N. Candani and Aurelia S. Putri 16-6 to flip the cumulative score to 22-17 in Malaysia's favor.
Indonesia hit back through Jolin Angelia, who got the better of Carine Tee 16-10 in the girls' singles to nudge the tie back in Indonesia's direction at 32-33. From there, Malaysia's mixed doubles and boys' doubles strength took over: Zulwaqqarizal Ahmad and Low Zi Yu edged Moses A. Simanjuntak and Reya A. Yulianti 12-10 to reclaim the lead, before Damien Ling and Shazmir Irfan closed out the set with an 11-6 win over Raihan D. E. Pramono and Anju Siahaan, sealing Set 1 for Malaysia 55-49.
Malaysia wasted no time setting the tone in the second set. Tiew Wei Jie avenged his Set 1 loss, beating Joe 11-7 in the rematch, and Lim-Low followed up with an 11-5 rout of a reshuffled Indonesian pairing of Candani and Halifia U. Pratiwi to push the lead out to 22-11.
Angelia remained Indonesia's lone bright spot, taking the girls' singles rubber 17-11 against Tee for a second straight win in the head-to-head — but it barely dented Malaysia's cushion, with the cumulative score moving to 33-28. Zulwaqqarizal Ahmad and Low Zi Yu again delivered in mixed doubles, winning 11-9 to stretch it to 44-37, before a late reshuffle on both sides sealed the tie: Isyraf Hafizin partnered Zulwaqqarizal Ahmad in boys' doubles for Malaysia and beat Indonesia's Faizal Pangestu-Anju Siahaan pairing 11-5, completing a 55-42 set and a 2-0 sweep of the tie.
Malaysia advances to Saturday's final in Cairo chasing the nation's first Suhandinata Cup title since 2011, while Indonesia — champions in 2024 and runners-up to China in 2025 — exits with bronze and will look to regroup after a second straight year without the trophy. Malaysia's final opponent will be confirmed by the result of the tournament's other semi-final.
Credit Photo : BAM