The Finnish International Series website is: http://81.17.202.116/fic/index.php And we can get the latest scores here: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=13835
Results Joachim Persson [DEN] won the MS, Li Wenyan [CHN] won the WS. Can't say I was too surprised by this result... If I am not mistaken, Joachim has won this Finnish event twice before. I think this is his hattrick. The Indonesian upstart players crashed early on... Ari Yuli Wahyu crashed in the MS qualifying round. Andre Kurniawan was defeated by Joachim Persson in the round of 32. Andi Hartono ended up in the round of 16. Silvy Kurniawan was defeated by Tracey Hallam [ENG] in the round of 32 Rosaria Pungkasari went to the quarterfinals but lost to the eventual finalist, Julienne Schenk [GER]. Rosaria is performing very well early this year. Last week she went to the finals of Romania International Series. I always thought she was a talented player. Probably even more talented than Maria Kristin [who is currently the highest ranking Indonesian WS at World #30]. Last year, Maria Kristin, Wiwis Melliana, and Rosaria were all practicing in the national team. But Rosaria was basically injured [on the knee] for one whole year and was dropped from the National Team. Question to any member of BadmintonCentral: who is this Vladislav Druzchenko [UKR]?!? I don't know anyone from Ukraine, so I am so surprised to see him playing in the Finnish Series finals
Here's a picture of Ari Yuli Wahyu from the Finnish Series. You can see his PB Djarum coach, Ellen Angelina [2001 Indonesian Open Champ], in the background. Cool photo huh?
I remember, Ellen Angelina coached some under-15 girl's single players in Jakarta Open few time ago while she still play in Open Category. One of these girls is Sylvinna who won in U-15 GS in this tournament. After finished one match, then she coach some young players. Unluckily Ellen was ended by Silvy Antarini 3 sets in Semi Final and Silvy won WS Open category.
It was very nice to see the Indonesian players here at Helsinki. Rosaria Pungkasari played very well and so did Andre Kurniawan. It was a pity that Andre played against Persson already in the first round. Joachim Persson has no won all of the last seven European Badminton Circuit Tournaments where he has played and 35 games in these tournaments. Vladislav Druzchenko played at his best at quarter and semifinals, but seemed to be quite nerveous at the finals. Playing at finals in this tournament might be his best tournament so far. We had here players from 30 different countries. If you like to see my tournament photos here are some. Qualifications Main tournament first rounds Quarter and semifinals Finals
Should be: Joachim Persson has now won all of the last seven European Badminton Circuit Tournaments where he has played and 35 games in these tournaments.
Joachim is a good player. Javix, tell us a little bit about Finnish badminton. Is it progressing in quality and participation? Is it club-based like in Denmark there? From what I know, Finland is a rich country [especially compared to Indonesia in GDP per capita]... so, does your government fund your badminton association? I have always wondered, how come I don't see a lot of Finnish players around. Your neighbour is Denmark and Sweden, both are regular producers of top badminton players. Both your neighbours [particularly Denmark] do not have a large population, but somehow manage to be productive in badminton quality. Over here in Southeast Asia, Indonesia-Malaysia-Singapore-Thailand, are very active in continuously developing badminton [with a variety of results, of course]... now Phillipine-Vietnam are becoming more active, they host regular BWF tournaments ...that have improved their prize money from year to year... showing that they are getting serious. How is it in Finland? Maybe some information on Norway too, if you know?
I also have wondered how Finland public covered the "racket" couple : Jarko and Annu Nieminen. How much proportion they knew Annu compared with Jarko?
More photos from Javix I downloaded a couple more photos from Javix's site. Here's a photo of Sylvi Kurniawan for Sandy... and another one of Andre Kurniawan...
Thanks for sharing them.. ..javix, nice pics ..And hope to see some of the Finnish players playing in this yr's U.S. Open(last yr we had a big group of Russian players "invading" the U.S. Open)..hehe
