St. Jakobshalle, Basel txt: Dille Andersen, WBSO, Int.Press photo: topbadminton.com Gresia Polii/Muhammad Rijal, INA vs Yanmei Jiang/Hendra Wijaya,SIN 21-12, 21-12 The first semifinal of the day was a Mixed Doubles clash between Yanmei Jiang/Hendra Wijaya, SIN, qualifying for this semifinal via the Qualifying rounds! They were up against Gresia Polii/Muhammad Rijal, INA. Although having the 'advantage' of being most fresh, as they had a W.O. (walkover) yesterday it was too big a mouthful for them. Polii/Rijal set the agenda for the match from the very start, serving well, and most importantly returned services incredibly well. It was CHN vs CHN in the first Women's Singles of today, 5/8 seed L Lan took on her compatriot Yanjiao Jiang. Predicting that match would have been a gamble, as Jiang certainly didn't just roll over to for the seeded player opposite her. They went hand in hand to 12-12 before Lu Lan put on the turbo finishing the game 21-16. Second game saw Jiang busy defending. She was chased around the court by Lu Lan, still playing in the highest gear! Scoring wise they took turns in leading to 6-6, then Jiang started having all the luck at the net, rollers going her way, cross drops performed to perfection. Lu equalized to 8-8. From then on it was over for Jiang Yanjiao, who did survived a couple of matchpoint at 20-13.... but third time maychpoint lucky for Lu Lan who took the game 21-15. The second Mixed Doubles final was a Europe-Asia encounter between Nadiezda Kostiuczyk/Robert Mateusiak, POL, on one side standing opposite Lee Hyo Jung/Lee Yong DAe, KOR. Both sides were 5/8 seeds. To 5-5 in the first game they slowly climbed op the scoring ladder, none of the parties leading by more than two points at a time. Both sides produced some fabulous sharp shots, the biggest difference in the first game was that Lee Hyo Jung didn't have any luck at the net! Still no one got the breakaway and it was 20-18 to KOR as Mateusiak shot the shuttle out! KOR took the first game 21-18 on the first game point. In the beginning of the second game the Polish pair were quiteunfortunate by hitting the shuttle in the net. Second game didn't resample first game at all. Kostiuczyk/Mateusiak steadily increased the lead and on the other side the Koreans seemed out of luck. Nothing really worked for them except for the occassional super shot that gave them some hope of staying in the game. All was the totally open in the third until KOR got a breakaway 1t 14-8. POL succeded in wheeling a little of that in but it wasn't to be today. A line call at 19-13 did not go the Polish way but not letting that get them down they scored the next few points. Lee/Lee won the game, and thereby the match, on their second match ball. 21-18, 11-21, 21-17 The Women's DOubles semifinal between Zhao Tingting/Zhang Wei, CHN and Chien YU-chin/heng Wen Hsing, TPE, was not terribly exciting in the first game. It seemed the shuttles were very slow. Zhao/Wei were sharper throughout the match, and especially in the second game, they smashed considerably more direct and were fastest on the net. They won this semifinal 21-14, 21-19. The clue of the first session this afternoon was the Men's Doubles between Tony Gunawan/Candra Wijaya, USA/INA and Koo Kean Kiet/Tan Boon Heong, MAS. The magtch started out in an incredible pace! The first points were dicided on fast serves and ewually fast serve returnes. Then the real fun began witht the meter high jumps and smashes again and again, making mere mortals embarrassed! The two sides are both very physically fit, able to run the sun black! It is astnishing the accuracy top players perform while playing inhigh speed, hanging 1 meter above the planets surface! The score was tight throughout the first game, with Gunawan/Wijaya 18-19. They turned it around to one game point, unsuccesfully used! Instead Koo/Tan took the next few points, winning first game 22-20. The second game continued in the incredible pace. Gunawan/Wijaya took an early lead and never let go of it. They took the game 21-13. The net play in this game was absolutely amazing! Koo/Tan quickly got themselves a 5-1 lead in the decisive game, which they expanded to an 11-3 lead. They seemed to have gotten a second wind, and won third 21-7
