To check the draw of the Polish Open 2008, click the following link: http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=20174
Surprisingly, Fran Kurniawan/Rendra Wijaya are not seeded . However, they should have plenty of fire power of reaching the last 4, if not the Final. R32: vs Adam Cwalina/Wojciech Szkudlarcyzk R16: vs Andrew Bowman/Martyn Lewis QF: vs Ross Smith/Glenn Warfe [4] SF: vs Johannes Schoettler/Tim Detmann [2] or Anton Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov or Robert Adcock/Robin Middleton
I am surprised too! But after checking, I now understand that Fran-Rendra was listed as #3 entrant because of notional ranking and if the draw is too small, and there are only 4 seeds, pairs even with a high notional ranking cannot be seeded... normal rankings will be used... Smith-Warfe of AUS are now ranked #45 in the world, while Chemnitz-Larsen of DEN are now ranked #39. While Fran-Rendra are #48... Fair-enough, actually...
Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka is going to play in qualification #8. I think Hayom will go far in this tournament... I think not only can he pass the qualification rounds, he can even defeat Richard Vaughan [5] and possibly Marc Zweibler [2]... Wisnu Haryo Putro will have a tough time even at the qualification #7 rounds... MAS player Kuan Beng Hong most possibly will defeat him... Ari Yuli Wahyu [currently part of INA's top 7 MS] will have an interesting match against Canada's tall and resilient Andrew Dabeka [3] in the round of 16. If he actually defeats Dabeka, then I predict a SF showdown against hometown hero Przemyslaw Wacha [1]!
Aussie at Polish Open Men's Singles - Main draw Stuart Gomez vs Qualifier 4 Men's Singles - Qualification 3 Jef Tho vs Hallstein Oma (NOR) Men's Doubles - Main draw - Ross Smith/Glen Warfe [4th Seed] vs Adrian Dziolo/Patryk Szymoniak (POL) Women's Singles - Qualification 2 Erin Carroll vs Akvile Stapussityte (LTU) Women's Singles - Qualification 6 Leisha Cooper vs Nicola Cerfontyne (ENG) Women's Doubles - Main draw Erin Carroll/Leisha Cooper vs Elodie Eymard/Weny Rahmawati(FRA)
Good to see the Aussies in this part of the world too! Badminton feels more like a global sports this way eh? And apparently there is an Australian Open International Challenge now! I wish one day it will be a GP [or even GP Gold] event... That will be so cool! An Oceania tour with NZ Open GP and Australian Open GP. So cool!
INA WS in Poland Maria Elfira Christina, otherwise known as Fira, has the toughest draw among the INA ladies... Yes she does not have to fight in any qualification matches, but after the first round challenge against Kristina Ludikova of the Czech Republic, she will either meet Jang Soo Young or Juliane Schenk [1]... Tough tough second round... Maria Elfira is part of the triple Maria-s of Djarum [INA #1 Maria Kristin, INA #4 Maria Elfira, and INA #7 Maria Febe]... Sylvinna Kurniawan, the 2006 Indonesian Junior Champion and current INA #9, have completely recovered from her hip injury [that she suffered before the 2007 INA Open]. Sylvi should be a top unseeded challenger in this tournament. I think this 19-year-old not only can breeze through the qualification stages smoothly, but she can also defeat Finland's Anu Nieminen [5]. Sylvi most probably will finish as a quarterfinalist... Rosaria Yusfin Pungkasari, whose nickname is Pipin, will also qualify to the main draw and play Linda Zechiri of Bulgaria in the 1st round. Pipin, who is INA #8, has the the abilities to defeat Larisa Griga [4] of Ukraine and Charmaine Reid [8] of Canada... Last year, Pipin went to the final of Romania International and the quarterfinal of Finnish International. The cold weather suits her well. I think she can go as far as the semifinals... I think the draw is quite fair towards the INA ladies, who have travelled thousands of kilometers to Poland to compete as much as possible. All 3 of them are in the top half of the draw and don't have to meet any of the good Koreans or top seed too early. In the end, I think, realistically, a fit Petya Nedelcheva [2] or a fit Hwang Hye Young [3] will most likely win the whole thing.
Well, luckily for Pipin the weather here in Poland has been wretched. The nights are frosty... But the end of the week - according to our weather forecast - should be more sunny
Many Indonesians prefer to avoid the sun whenever possible. We have waaayyy too much sun in our country... That's why we play badminton a lot. Because it is an indoor sport... And women with whiter skin are considered more attractive by most INA men; skin whitening products are sold at a premium here. So, the women are even more inclined to be indoors whenever possible...
I am still waiting for some changes...I wont be surprised if Pipin gets bumped up to main draw...........
If that happens, I hope she will be nowhere near Huang Hye Youn and Petya Nedelcheva... Compared to that, it is better to just compete in her current draw...
Whos this Dionysius Hayom Rumbaka in Qualification No. 8, Do you guys think he can beat Aamir GHAFFAR there?? I never heard about him, but surprisingly Krisna voted him very high....
Hayom is an up and coming INA youngster... We have high hopes for him, but he hasn't accomplished much, actually... Hayom have never won a single international tournament in his life... Not yet... I think Hayom can defeat Aamir. Is Aamir very fit or has improved tremendously or something? By the way, it is 10:13am in Poland and the games have started... and no livescore...
He is tall guy..a bit taller than Amir...Hayom has improved much...so it will be a good game between them....
Many International Series and International Challenge tournaments in Europe are like this ... I believe this is because of 2 things: 1. Fewer days that count towards tournament-hall rental fees. 2. Too few spectators on Wednesdays and Thursdays... The hoards of spectators will most likely be around on Friday-Saturday-Sunday...