From court to Birmingham AMERICAN doubles pair Mathew Fogarty-Dean Schoppe had to go to court to ensure they could get on court in Birmingham. The pair even forked out their own money to realise a first World Championships appearance here. And it has been one hell of a debut for the duo so far. About to hit 46 next month, they are the oldest players for the world meet. But there was no indication of that on Monday evening. The duo, who have been playing for the past four years, came from behind to down the Welsh pairing of Liam Ingram-Richard Williams, who looked young enough to be their children, 11-15, 15-11, 15-10 in a 70 minute match. Best of friends since 15, the duo will now face the number 12 seeds Stanislav Pukhov-Nicolaj Zuev from Russia in the second round. Fogarty and Schoppe, who showed strong fighting spirit and determination against the young pair celebrated like they had won the world title when they clinched the winning point. They deserved to celebrate. It has been a long battle to get to Birmingham. “We had to pay legal fees about US$7,500 because we went to court to ensure our place in the world meet. “Our association did not want us to endorse our right to play. “They were not happy because we were beating the younger guys and one of them happens to be the son of the president,” said Fogarty, who is a physician in New Orleans. “However, we felt we deserve it because we were ranked 50th in the world. The top 64 pairs qualify and we had a strong case. That's how we ended up here.” “We also had no chance to practise in advance like the others. Both of us stay far from each other. We only squeezed in some training when we arrived here two days ago, he said, adding that they had spent some US$17,500 to come to Birmingham. The win yesterday was worth every cent of that. For Schoppe, he went to all that trouble because of his love for the game and his passion to represent the country. “This is the World Championships and we did not expect to win a match. This is unbelievable.” Their next big dream now is to get enough ranking points to qualify for the Olympics in Athens next year. But that can wait. The pair were forced to cut short the interview as they have to make plans to extend their stay now. “We had bought ticket to go home on Thursday. I think we have to change the dates now.” The Star Sports. ...Kwun, THESE ARE THE 'CRAFTY OLD FOLKS' !!!....
Crafty politically as well. “Our association did not want us to endorse our right to play. “They were not happy because we were beating the younger guys and one of them happens to be the son of the president,” said Fogarty, who is a physician in New Orleans. That's a statement to the whole world!!
Wow... Wondering whether they will get into trouble from the "organization" when they come back, even law suit... seems they are really not happy (players vs. organization) with each other.
He implied their pair is the best from the USA somehow. I am wondering how many pairs are better than them in USA and are qualify to represent USA in the world championship, but could not go because of lack of funding or motivation. They have no ranking in USA MD, actually according to here: http://www.usabadminton.org/USAB_rankings-MD.html I guess Chibing Wu/Andy Chong, Andy Chong/Radu Milevschi and Chris/Radu are better than them from the east coast. I do not know too much about west coast, except many pairs team with Tony G are better, but Tony G is not quialified to play for USA now.
