Some early results from Day 1: Yoshimi Hataya bt Frances Liu Fan 22-20, 17-21, 21-12 -- the Jap continues her good run by beating her Singaporean opponents. Ronald Susilo bt Delius Tang 21-6, 21-7 -- no probs for Ronald, all over in 18 mins. His opponent tomorrow will be the Chinese Taipei player Cheng Ching-Hung. The first real opponent will come on Thursday..in the form of the top seed Sairul Amar Ayob. I think Team Singapore brings ALL its players to NZ for this tournament as well as a holiday perhaps? We will see some early clashes between the Singaporen players from tomorrow onwards, eg: Xing Aiying vs Zhang Beiwen, and possibily Li Li vs Shinta Mulia Sari. In terms of draws, I have said earlier that Singaporean players might win most events, but, this may turn out to be incorrect, esp in MS and WS. However, Singapore is indeed most likely to win the WD and XD events (with Li Yujia grabbing two golds perhaps?). The MS and WS are pretty open to anyone. In MS, Kendrick Lee Yen Hui is only seeded 7th. He will face tricky opponents starting from either Saman Ismail or Richard Vaughn in Round 1/16 on Thursday. A potential quarter-final clash with Shoji Sato awaits on Friday. Meanwhile, Ronald will also face the top seed Sairul Amar Ayob in Round 1/16, followed probably by John Moody in the quarter-final. The winner from this quarter will face the winner of the second quarter which contains Kendrick Lee and Shoji Sato.
Phew! I thought what happened to him when i read the results at the website. I almost give him a call. Hahah.. anyway i've noticed that they corrected the Error.
I also couldn't believe that Tsung Seng could lose so badly to an unknown and knew it must be a horrible mistake! Frankly, I think there will be a few upsets as some of the seedings for the local players especially may be a little too presumptuous.
More results: Some of the more established players like Lee Tsuen Tseng, Saman Ismail and Richard Vaughn in the MS have progressed. Saman vs Vaugn will perhaps be one of the more interesting match tomorrow. Singaporean players like Erwin Djohan and Shinta Mulia Sari also have no programs. One SIngaporean was out though...Derek Wong Zi Liang lost to Alan Chan in straight sets 16-21, 17-21. 4 more matches to be completed for today and its unlikely that we will see any upset for those matches.
Some of the more interesting matches tomorrow (not much though). Predictions in bold. MS ROUND 1/32 Nikhil Katekar vs Erwin Djohan Saman Ismail vs Richard Vaughn MD ROUND 1/32 Craig Cooper/Daniel Shirley vs Cheng Ching-Hung/Hsieh Yu-Hsing WS ROUND 1/32 Rachel Hindley vs Gu Juan -- can Gu upset the top seed? Xing Aiying vs Zhang Beiwen -- a batlle of two China-born Singaporeans. Aiying to progress! Yao Lei vs Tania Luiz -- again, a Singaporean vs a seeded player. WD ROUND 1/32 Rebecca Bellingham/Nicole Gordon vs Yao Lei/Fu Mingtian XD ROUND 1/32 Geoff Bellingham/Rebecca Bellingham vs Ross Smith/Tania Luiz Chew Choon Eng/Chor Hooi Yee vs Daniel Shirley/Renee Flavell -- remember Daniel Shirley? He was in the semi-final of the WC last year and his partnership with Sara Runesten-Petersen had created a few upsets. Too bad, his partner decided to retire this year.
Selected results from Day 2: MS ROUND 1/32 Ronald Susilo bt Cheng Ching-Hung 21-16, 21-10 -- a smooth ride for Ronald...but Sairul Amar Ayob awaits tomorrow. Kendrick Lee Yen Hui bt Kevin Da Silva 23-3, 21-13 -- similarly no problem for Kendrick so far. Tougher test for him in the form of Saman Ismail or Richard Vaughn tomorrow also. Nikhil Kathekar bt Erwin Djohan 21-14, 21-15 -- no such luck for Erwin though...as the Indian beat him. WS ROUND 1/32 Xing Aiying bt Zhang Beiwen 21-17, 21-13 -- Aiying progressed as expected...and she should win again tomorrow, playing against the unknown Maggie Chan. Yao Lei bt Tania Luiz 21-19, 21-17 -- perhaps the only shock so far? A good victory for the China born Singaporean as she beat the fifth-seed Tania. She will meet her compatriot Fu Mingtian tomorrow. We could have quite w couple of all-Singaporean matches tomorrow. Shinta Mulia Sari vs Li Li and Fu Mingtian vs Yao Lei.
Reasonably strong field for a 2* tournament. MS: I am predicting a Conrad Hueckstaedt v Sato Shoji final, and Sato to win. Strong contenders: Ayob, Susilo, Kendrick, Smith, Lee TS WS: Yoshimi Hataya v Li Li, with Li winning. Strong contenders: Xing, Umezu MD: Hendra/Hendri v Sukmawan/Hian, with Indons (the ones who still represent Indonesia) winning. WD: Lim PS/Joanne Quay v Jiang YM/Li YJ, with Singaporeans winning XD: Hendri/Li YJ v Chew CE/Chor HY with Singaporeans winning Strong contenders: Hendra/Frances
A few more selected results from today and a few upsets involving Singaporeans losing. WS ROUND 1/32 Vina bt Shinta Mulia Sari 21-19, 21-19 -- so, no all-Singaporean match tomorrow. Instead, Vina will now meet Li Li. Rachel Hindley bt Gu Juan 21-17, 24-22 -- another close match and the top seed managed to progress to Round 1/16. XD ROUND 1/32 Chew Choon Eng/Chor Hoi Yee bt Daniel Shirley/Renee Flavell 14-21, 21-18, 21-17 -- a good result for the Malaysian pair. They have a chance to go all the way to the final.
Selected matches for tomorrow. MS ROUND 1/16 Sairul Amar Ayob vs Ronald Susilo (MATCH OF THE DAY) -- tough test for both players. I hope Ronald win! Kendrick Lee Yen Hui vs Richard Vaughn Koichi Saeki vs Andrew Smith -- tricky tie for the second-seeded English player...but he should manage. MD ROUND 1/16 Hendry Saputra Kurniawan/Hendra Wijaya vs Chen Hung-Ling/Huang Shih-Chung Lin Yu-Lang/Chien Yu-Hsun vs Rian Sukmawan/Eng Hian -- the Djarum players should also win! WS ROUND 1/16 Rachel Hindley vs Yoshimi Hataya -- the Jap to win and continues her fine form. Fu Mingtian vs Yao Lei WD ROUND 1/16 Lim Pek Siah/Joanne Quay Swee Ling vs Rebecca Bellingham/Nicole Gordon Gu Juan/Zhang Beiwen vs Purwati/Meiliana Jauhari Chor Hoi Yee/Ang Li Peng vs Jiang Yanmei/Li Yujia XD ROUND 1/16 Chew Choon Eng/Chor Hooi Yee vs Hendra Wijaya/Frances Liu Fan
Selected early results from Thursday: MS ROUND 1/16 Lee Tsuen Tseng bt Stuart Gomez 21-12, 21-11 -- the Malaysian is the first to reach QF. Nikhil Kanetkar bt Geoff Bellingham 21-6, 21-12 XD ROUND 1/16 Hendry Saputra Kurniawan/Li Yujia bt Ashley Brehaut/Erin Carroll 21-6, 21-5 -- They will face another NZ pair in the QF tomorrow...and by right, they should win the title!
More results... MS ROUND 1/16 Kendrick Lee Yen Hui bt Richard Vaughn 21-17, 21-15 -- he faces Shoji Sato next in tomorrow's match of the day. Koichi Saeki lost to Andrew Smith 12-21, 16-21 -- no problem for the English player and he will meet the Indian player Nikhil Kanetkar in the QF. WS ROUND 1/16 Rachel Hindley lost to Yoshimi Hataya 12-21, 9-21 -- the top seed lost to the Jap player as expected. The Jap will meet Trupti Murgunde next. Fu Mingtian bt Yao Lei 21-14, 19-21, 21-10 -- the Singaporean player will face Huang Chia-Chi who suprisingly beat the second seed Setheaswari Mundukasan in straight sets. Xing Aiying bt Maggie Chan 21-6, 21-7 -- Aiying also progressed. MD ROUND 1/16 Lin Yu-Lang/Chien Yu-Hsun lost to Rian Sukmawan/Eng Hian 15-21, 15-21 -- the second seeded Djarum pair passed their first test in the New Zealand Open. As a note, Rian Sukmawan is still very young (born in 1985) and this partnership is beginning to bear some fruits. They have beaten Hoon Thien How/Tan Boon Heong, Hwang Ji Man/Jung Tae Kuk and Sudket Prapakamol/Patapol Ngernsrisuk. So far, they have lost mostly to top 10 pairs such as Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah (twice), Chan Chong Ming/Koo Kien Keat, Jung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae, and Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari/Lin Woon Fui. A title here will do them good!
badMania, I think you got the convention wrong. 1/16 should mean Last 32. Normally, for short, I would call it R32, meaning Round of 32. 1/8 means R16. 1/4 is a Quarter, hence QuarterFinal. 1/2 is a Half or Semi, hence SemiFinal. Therefore to avoid confusion, it would be better to call today's matches R16 instead of 1/16. Just my thought. I may be the one who is wrong.
The Draw and the number of Rounds badMania, looks like your predictions are correct so far. Actually if you look at the draw, 1/16 is classified as Round 3 or R3 for short. I suppose they don't put it as Round 1/16, or Round 16 as 1/16 probably means there are 16 players left to compete in the event and not to confuse with the number of rounds of competition that have been played for that particular event. Similarly 1/32 means 32 players left or Round 2 if the number of entries started with 64 players in Round 1. Conversely, if there are only 32 entries for that event, 1/32 will become R1, 1/16 will become R2. It really depends on the number of entries, but from QF onwards, it is standard. I think, during the recent Cheers Age-Group Singles tournament in Singapore, the number of entries for some events reached a record 128, so a Round 4 has to be included and the competitors have to play more rounds if they win and advance to the next round. 1/8, or 8 players left in the competition, would mean the Quarter Finals, 1/4 means only 4 players left in the Semi-Finals and the last two competitor will fight it out in the Finals, as you can also see from the draw.
