For Indonesians, badminton is such a nation's sport just like football/soccer to Brazilian. There are lots of good achievement from this sport such as Olympic gold medalist, World Champion, All England Champion, etc. The first time I got interested in badminton was in 2008 when Indonesia became the host of Thomas and Uber Cup but I didn't really follow it until Asian Games 2018 happened. 

When I discovered there would be a BWF tournament held in January 2019, I was so excited and decided to watch it live in Istora Senayan. I have heard about being in Istora (or Ngistora) was such a wonderful and unforgettable experience. I bought a ticket for R16 and Final match because rumor said there would be a special thing happened on the last day and it was related to Liliyana Natsir's retirement. Big thanks to my new friend Nino, she notified me as the ticket was on sale at blibli.com. 

Indonesia Masters was held in January 22-27 2019 but a day before, Nino brought me to see the athletes testing the court so I joined her. She also mentioned about the opportunity to take photos with the athletes and that just excite me more, lol. I didn't really hope to be able to take photos with Indonesian athletes because there are lots of their fans that wanting to do so, so I thought "I hope I can take photos with the Danish players." Because I currently love some of them, especially their Men's Double Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen. And it happened, guys! 😭 I just arrived in Gelora Bung Karno when they're passing by. With my fangirling mode (lol), I asked them to take photos together with me so we did. Big thanks to Victor Svendsen who took our photo. I actually took many photos with other athletes such as Arisa Higashino (XD player from Japan), Ratchanok Intanon (WS from Thai) the Stoevas (WD from Bulgaria), etc.

Fast forward to the Day 3 (round 16 of the match), I arrived in Istora around 9:30 AM because the first game started in 10 AM. Getting myself a regular tribune ticket means I had to see the match quite far from the court... Okay. There were four courts that being used and I chose to take the seat nearby the court 4. There are just A LOT of matches I paid attention to but my favorites on that day are: 

1. Men Singles: I'm going to say Jonatan Christie vs Shi Yuqi because at that match, Christie was able to defeat the #2 seeds with score 22-20 and 21-06. Yes, the Chinese guy seemed lose focus and down so he's only able to get 6 points. Kantaphon Wangcharoen of Thailand vs the reigning Olympic champion Chen Long was quite interested too because it took almost an hour to finish that match (in 2 games, mind you.)

2. Women Singles: Hmmm... the unexpected result of Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand vs Akane Yamaguchi of Japan had captivated me. Akane is one of the player who's in Top 10 (currently ranking 5 if I'm not mistaken) but she lost from unseeded player like Chochuwong. Carolina Marin had to play in 3 games against Kim Ga Eun of Korea and thankfully the Spaniard won

3. Men Doubles: My seat is too far from court 3 where Astrup/Rasmussen played so I didn't really pay attention to them (sigh), but fortunately they won even though they had to play three games. But being able to see the #1 (Gideon/Sukamuljo) on court was quite an experience, even though they were playing against their compatriot. 

4. Women Doubles: Greysia Polii/Apriyani Rahayu match against the Chinese Taipei was quite entertaining. They won easily on first game but they had to fight harder on second game (and not to mention the opponent was quite a bit dramatic). Another unexpected result? Kim So Yeong/Kong Hee Yong vs Tanaka/Yonemoto because... well, the Korean (Kim/Kong) was unseeded and if I'm not mistaken, their ranking was still under 30th when they played in Indonesia Masters but they're able to beat the Japanese (not the monster one, though. But still)... Plus I like to watch them, not boring with those lob shots and not to mention their defense was just... wow. 

5. Mixed Doubles: Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong match against Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti was quite interesting, although the Indonesian had to lose the match. Also the competition between the senior XD Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir vs Hafiz Faisal/Gloria Widjadja was one of the most watch. Too bad the younger pair lost. 

Final Day: 

So the rumor was true, there was a farewell event for Liliyana Natsir, one of the best XD player in Indonesia. Indonesia Masters was her last tournament, she also played in the final match against #1 seeds Zheng Siwei/Huang Yaqiong. I arrived there at 9 AM to exchange my printed e-ticket to the bracelet version (quite ineffective, tbh) and it's already bloooooody crowded even though it wouldn't start until 12 PM. The farewell event itself started before the match and every badminton lovers just wanted to see Butet (Liliyana) giving a goodbye speech. It was heartbreaking to watch that since she and her partner had given so many achievements (including gold medal at Rio Olympics 2016) but it was a sweet farewell, at least for me.

Next, the final started with women's doubles match between Kim So Yeon/Kong Hee Yong vs Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi. The Koreans seemed promising, just like what I've mentioned above that they had brilliant defense and good attacking, but unfortunately Matsutomo/Takahashi won and defended their title here. The most interesting was, every people in the stadium rooted for Korea LOL. Yeah, well... Japanese WD is too dominating and sometimes the badminton lovers are sick to see them winning again and again.

Moving on to the next match, it was the men's single between the #1 Kento Momota vs the unseeded underdog Anders Antonsen. Me, of course I rooted the underdog, lol. Almost every people in Istora rooted for King Kento, and I know he's really good but seeing Antonsen fighting alone (he had no coach neither his teammates were there) plus, he's actually that good with his tricky shot and defense. The first game won by him, but he made too many mistakes on the beginning of second game (HIS RETURN SERVICES WERE TOO AWFUL GDI!) so they had to play a decider game. Thankfully he won, it was kind of heartbreaking because he was alone and every people in Istora cheered on him after the second game so he celebrated it with us, by throwing his jersey to the tribune.

After the men's singles, I watched the all Indonesian final MD: Marcus Gideon/Kevin Sukamuljo vs Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan. It was.... the quickest match I've ever saw: LESS THAN 30 MINUTES? You've got to be kidding me. IMHO the game was still interesting but somehow on the second game, Ahsan/Setiawan seemed unable to fight more so the title won by the minions. But the cutest thing is, the daddies (Ahsan/Setiawan) brought their toddlers to the podium. Awww...
Next is the Women's Singles match, Carolina Marin vs Saina Nehwal. I am a huge fan of Marin so I rooted for her, even though Saina has a reputation of being "Queen of Istora."The game was quite interesting and Marin was so on fire until she fell down and cried, oh no. Turns out, she's having her ACL torn and it made her has to absent for at least 6-7 months. I was really hoping she would win, honestly. It was heartbreaking to see her leaving the court with tears and pain.

And last but not least was the mixed doubles match between Zheng/Huang vs Ahmad/Natsir. Every people in Istora shouted "OWI BUTET!" loudly because it would be Butet's last match and we would not be able to shout it again. The first game won by Indonesia, but the Chinese was too strong and be able to steal the second and third game. Ugh, our legend had lost on her last match. Nevertheless, we proud of her. Thank you for all of your achievement, Butet!

And now Indonesia Masters was over, I was glad to spend my savings for this. My first time experiencing Istora and hopefully this won't be the last. See you later in Indonesia Open! (I hope.)