Of course it was going to be a complicated situation for both Toma Junior Popov and his younger brother Christo as they faced off in the first round of KAPAL API Indonesia Open 2025.

Both have been in excellent form; Toma Junior was runner-up at the European Championships and a quarterfinalist at the Malaysia Masters; Christo, ranked three places below him at No.20, was in the Swiss Open final and in two semifinals, including last week’s Singapore Open.

Toma Junior looked set to take the opening game with a 19-16 lead but blew it, and from there he frequently shook his head as Christo gained on him. With both keeping their emotions in check, they appeared somewhat constrained and the older brother looked miffed with himself long after the match was over. Christo acknowledged it was a difficult problem to deal with.

“It’s the worst … I just can’t describe the feeling,” said Christo. “We wish to never play against each other, but of course, if we are both at the top level, then it’s true at some point we should encounter each other. Of course I’m happy to go to the second round but at the same time, I’m very sad for my brother. It means one of the brothers goes forward and the other is losing first round, which is very frustrating for us.

“We know with another draw, we could have both gone a bit forward. For me, it’s just very sad to play against my brother and win. But yeah, that’s sports in the end and we should be ready to have those situations if we are both on the top level.

“It’s tough on both sides and neither of us can lift ourselves up on court. It’s very hard for us to celebrate. It’s a strange situation.”

Rather surprisingly, they had only met each other twice in international competition, with honours even.

“There have been many situations to play each other if we both had won. For example, last week we could have played each other in the quarterfinals; in Malaysia, we both lost in the quarterfinals. So at some point, our destiny was an encounter in this Asian Tour. It was the first round in Indonesia.”

Later in the day, the brothers teamed up for their doubles. It was a close match all the way, against Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Kittinupong Kedren, and the brothers would end up losing 21-18 in the third.

For Toma Junior, the second consecutive loss must have been hard to bear.

“There’s nothing to be happy about because we lost,” he snapped. “The level was there but today wasn’t on our side.”

It was not difficult, he claimed, to shut out the happenings of the morning.

Christo, on the other hand, could look at some positives: “I’m always excited to play doubles with my brother and we’ve been playing some good badminton. Dechapol played amazing and it was very tough for us but we had a big chance on court. Of course it sucks to lose even though we played some good badminton.”

Malaysians’ Run Ends

Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik finally ran out of steam after a brilliant spell which saw them make four straight finals, winning three, including last week’s Singapore Open.

The Malaysians had their noses in front against Rasmus Kjaer/Frederik Sogaard before falling prey to a few errors at the end. Having made three finals in three weeks, Soh admitted the physical toll had proved too much.

“To be honest, our physical condition wasn’t very good but we were still trying mentally. We just tried every point, we can’t deny that they played better than us, and they were physically fresher than us. We will fight back.”

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