Loh
06-28-2005, 04:21 AM
Gu Juan, probably around 15 years old, imported from China about 2 years ago, caused a major upset in the Women's Singles Qualifying Round.
Wearing Singapore colours, the diminutive Gu Juan shocked the audience in this morning's qualifying rounds 1 and 2 by defeating opponents much higher ranked than her.
In Round 1 early this morning, she defeated Malaysia's No.1, Wong Mew Choo, 6-11, 11-3, 11-4 in 40 min. Who would have thought that she could even take one game off Mew Choo, who displayed such fine form during the recent Sudirman Cup? In Round 2 played this early afternoon, she stopped short the advance of the much taller and bigger build Dutch girl, Rachel Van Cutsen, also in three games, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 in 44 min.
Although I missed the first match, I witnessed the second and was delighted to see how such a young girl was so calm in the court and was winning many points at the net with her dexterity. The fact that despite losing the first game in both matches, she came back to take the remaining two games. Much credit goes to her more superior fitness. Although lacking in height as she has not fully developed yet, she covered the court well and pressured her Dutch opponent into making many unforced errors.
Tomorrow she will meet Zhou Mi at 2.15 pm. Naturally she will lose, but how many consolation points can she gather, I wonder?
Of all the young girls and boys who took part in the qualifiers, only Gu Juan was outstanding. The boys, Derek Wong, Chew Swee Hau and Aaron Tan did well to beat their Round 1 opponents but in Round 2, only Aaron showed some glimpse of doing better when he lost 10-15, 15-11 and 6-15 to Japan's Ohtsuka Shinya.
As Gu Juan was the only qualifier to advance to the main draw, I shall show a pic of her participation in last year's Cheers Asian Satellite Championships:
Wearing Singapore colours, the diminutive Gu Juan shocked the audience in this morning's qualifying rounds 1 and 2 by defeating opponents much higher ranked than her.
In Round 1 early this morning, she defeated Malaysia's No.1, Wong Mew Choo, 6-11, 11-3, 11-4 in 40 min. Who would have thought that she could even take one game off Mew Choo, who displayed such fine form during the recent Sudirman Cup? In Round 2 played this early afternoon, she stopped short the advance of the much taller and bigger build Dutch girl, Rachel Van Cutsen, also in three games, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 in 44 min.
Although I missed the first match, I witnessed the second and was delighted to see how such a young girl was so calm in the court and was winning many points at the net with her dexterity. The fact that despite losing the first game in both matches, she came back to take the remaining two games. Much credit goes to her more superior fitness. Although lacking in height as she has not fully developed yet, she covered the court well and pressured her Dutch opponent into making many unforced errors.
Tomorrow she will meet Zhou Mi at 2.15 pm. Naturally she will lose, but how many consolation points can she gather, I wonder?
Of all the young girls and boys who took part in the qualifiers, only Gu Juan was outstanding. The boys, Derek Wong, Chew Swee Hau and Aaron Tan did well to beat their Round 1 opponents but in Round 2, only Aaron showed some glimpse of doing better when he lost 10-15, 15-11 and 6-15 to Japan's Ohtsuka Shinya.
As Gu Juan was the only qualifier to advance to the main draw, I shall show a pic of her participation in last year's Cheers Asian Satellite Championships: