Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo KING ON THE NET
Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (born 2 August 1995) is an Indonesian professional badminton player currently ranked world number 1 in the men's doubles by the Badminton World Federation. He plays for PB Djarum, and has been a member of the club since 2007. He won the men's doubles titles at the All England Open in 2017 and 2018; World Superseries Finals in 2017; and at the Asian Games in 2018. He also featured in the Indonesia winning team at the Southeast Asian Games in 2015, and at the Asia Team Championships in 2018 and 2020. Together with his current partner, Marcus Fernaldi Gideon, they were awarded the BWF Best Male Players of the Year for two years in a row after collecting seven Superseries titles in 2017 and eight World Tour titles in 2018.
Sukamuljo and Gideon are often referred to as "the Minions" because of their below average height and for their fast and agile playing style, jumping and bouncing just like the Minions in the film Despicable Me. BWF commentator, Gillian Clark stated that the fast play shown by Sukamuljo and Gideon have taken the men's doubles game to a new level and makes the matches exciting to watch.
Early and personal life
Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo was born on 2 August 1995 in Banyuwangi, East Java, Indonesia, to parents Sugiarto Sukamuljo and Winartin Niawati of Chinese Indonesians ethnicity.[3][4][5] He is the nephew of former world number 1 men's doubles player, Alvent Yulianto.[6] Sukamuljo started to learn about badminton at two and a half years, by seeing his father play on the court behind their house.[7] Noticing young Sukamuljo's interest in badminton, his father then found a coach in Jember at the Putra 46 club to foster his child's talent for a year.[8] Sukamuljo later entered the Sari Agung club in Banyuwangi and in 2006, at the age of eleven, he won a Graha Bhakti Cup tournament.[7] Recognizing his talent, Sukamuljo's parents encouraged him to join a bigger club. He then took part at the general auditions scholarship held by PB Djarum, but failed due to his small physique. However, he refused to give up, and began training everyday, instead of his usual 4 days a week routine. With these additional hours, he finally managed to pass the audition at PB Djarum in 2007.[4][9][10][11]
After joining PB Djarum, Sukamuljo went through defeat after defeat. At first, Sukamuljo played in the men's singles discipline. However, he was then turned toward the doubles disciplines, experimenting with both the men's and mixed doubles. Initially, he and his parents resisted this turn toward specialization in doubles,[4][12] but men's doubles coach Ade Lukas believed that this was where Sukamuljo's skills and abilities would be best utilized. After a year of training in doubles, he showed progress and had great expectations going forward.[13]
2020–2021
Sukamuljo began his 2020 season by playing in the Malaysia Masters, pairing up with Marcus Fernaldi Gideon again. However, they finished in the quarter finals after losing to Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto in a close rubber game.[129] Sukamuljo later won his fourth consecutive Indonesia Masters title (third with Gideon) defeating Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in straight games.[130] In February, he alongside Indonesia men's team won the Asia Team Championships held in Manila.[131] In March, he played at the All England Open with Gideon. The duo failed to win the title after lost to Hiroyuki Endo and Yuta Watanabe in the final. This was their sixth loss in a row over Endo and Watanabe.[132] Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous tournaments on the 2020 BWF World Tour were either cancelled or rescheduled for later in the year. In June, he then took part at the PBSI home tournament partnered with Muhammad Reza Pahlevi Isfahani. The duo won four matches, but unable to accomplish their victory after lost their last match against Fajar Alfian and Yeremia Rambitan, and finished as runner-up at that tournament.[133] Sukamuljo planned to return in the international competitions at the 2020 Asian Leg tournament in January 2021, but then he had to withdrawn from the competition after tested positive for COVID-19 in December 2020.[134]
Sukamuljo made his comeback at the All England Open in March 2021. He and Gideon had played in the first round by beating the host pair Matthew Clare and Ethan van Leeuwen in a rubber game, but later Indonesia team were forced to withdraw from the competition by BWF after the team members will self-isolate for 10 days from the date of their inbound flight after an anonym person traveling onboard tested positive for COVID-19.[135]
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