Australian International

**Pecheur** · 09-15-2002, 08:18 PM

Last few days or so, the Australian International, and U19 open have been running at MSAC (Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, where the World Masters are about to be held), naturally I went along for a few parts of it, anyone else there?

You can see the results at: http://www.badminton.org.au/OPEN_Draw.htm

Okay can't say I watched a huge amount, but some thoughts were:

MD Semi T Denney - A Brehaut d Jiang X - B Pham
Not a bad game, Jiang Xin is definately getting worse being in Australia, even though his partner wasn't very good, two years ago he still would've been able to win, however still by far the best doubles player in Aus.

MXD Semi K Ng (MAS) - H Chor (MAS) lost to D Shirley (NZ) - S R-Petersen (NZ)
Very good game, went to three sets, 11 points definately too short for mixed doubles. Malaysians won the first game, very quick, tactically aware, both women were really good, Sarah RP better though. Three of the four players were pretty much up to the same page in the great tactics book in the sky, however Shirley was obviously a few chapters behind (but he's born in NZ so he can be excused for not being able to read properly

(yes I must have a jab at NZ people just to draw out adelina

)) NZ lost the first set, because whilst Shirley does have quite nice shots and good movement, he was just not with it tactically. Sarah had to talk to him a fair bit and explain things. NZ got up mainly due to Sarah's skill level and on court awareness, she's tall, fast, got good strokes and a good thinker (obviously not born in NZ and it showed

), very impressive. I still think Malaysia shoul've won, the frist set went quite quickly, the second in a tie break. Third got quite bad tempered.

MXD Final T Denney - K Wilson-Smith lost to D Shirley (NZ) - S R-Petersen (NZ)
Another good three set match. The two women were definately the better players, both smart and obscenely fast. Actually I've never seen Kate play that well, the two guys definately let the women down.

Other comments:
From watching our U19's and the other players, the changes to technique that our coaches have tried to impose on our players is beginning to show. For example, watching Shirley and Sarah RP, they both smashed predominantly from the forearm forward, ie they never really straighten their elbow, basically it stays at just over shoulder height and pushes forward with the forearm and wrist whipping down to provide the extra power. Our younger players have been trained to fully straighten the arm. I'm not going to argue as to which is more powerful I think it's easier for most people not to fully straighten the arm, and some of the most powerful smashes I've ever seen are from people that don't straighten the arm, however fully straightening the arm definately reduces the stress on the elbow. That's the reason why Aussies have been taught to do it that way for several years now.

Naturally it's too difficult for the older players to change the way they've been smashing since young, but it's definately filtering through to our young, which might extend their playing life/reduce the incidence of tennis elbow.

**ayl** · 09-15-2002, 11:01 PM

Yeah I was there too to watch the event.

I think I've said it before and I will say it again - badminton in OZ really needs some serious promotion to make it appeal more to general public to increase overall awareness to the community that this is a serious sport. The event had almost no promotion and there were hardly any outsiders coming in to watch... I am a fulltime member of Albert Park and even I didn't know it was being held until my string supplier told me about it .....

**Pecheur** · 09-15-2002, 11:21 PM

Really? I knew about it for quite a while, I thought I mentioned it when you asked when Warnambool was.

Say you aren't a 5'6 ish guy with black hair, who was carrying a ISO VF racquet cover (the guy was carrying two, though I couldn't see the other one) are you? If you are, you were the person I thought you were at Melb uni.

Originally posted by ayl
Yeah I was there too to watch the event.

I think I've said it before and I will say it again - badminton in OZ really needs some serious promotion to make it appeal more to general public to increase overall awareness to the community that this is a serious sport. The event had almost no promotion and there were hardly any outsiders coming in to watch... I am a fulltime member of Albert Park and even I didn't know it was being held until my string supplier told me about it .....

**ayl** · 09-15-2002, 11:36 PM

G'day Pecheur,

I have a memory like a goldfish so I probably forgotten all about it when you last told me.

I don't own any Iso VF rackets and I guess I am kinda hard to spot in the crowd. I was there with navy blue jacket and track suit pants and a big black Yonex racket bag, who ate KFC outside the door because I was worried about the chicken smelling the stadium out.....

Are you going to RMIT open? I've been enrolled again by my double's partner last week and just found out about it this morning....

**Pecheur** · 09-16-2002, 06:44 PM

RMIT open, when's that? Sorry it's usually out in Bundoora, so I don't really pay that much attention to it.

I've been there before to watch for a bit, keep in mind though their C grade is a proper Oz C grade, ie the standard isn't that high, as opposed to Melb uni C grade. I think the toughest pair I saw were the two seriously large guys (well there are three of them) that wander around in huge bunny slippers, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about if you've played a lot of tournaments

Originally posted by ayl
G'day Pecheur,

I have a memory like a goldfish so I probably forgotten all about it when you last told me.

I don't own any Iso VF rackets and I guess I am kinda hard to spot in the crowd. I was there with navy blue jacket and track suit pants and a big black Yonex racket bag, who ate KFC outside the door because I was worried about the chicken smelling the stadium out.....

Are you going to RMIT open? I've been enrolled again by my double's partner last week and just found out about it this morning....

**ayl** · 09-16-2002, 07:07 PM

Ahhh you are talking about Aggro and his mates from team "Slippers"!

We did a demolition job on them last time at Warrnambool.....hehehe

They actually tried to get us drunk on court so they could stand a chance against us........ Well they did succeed in getting us drunk but they were tipsy also, so we still won against them....

Great blokes these guys are though. Real characters which adds spice to the sport