Good victory for Line, a promise of things to come perhaps . Kinda takes the edge of this MD a bit though , imagine England 2-1 up at this point ...
Congratz, good fighting spirit from the English! Nonetheless it's very unlikely that they'll be able to prevail in the end.
This was very close... If the Eng girls would have won that first set.... NOt sure about the danish nerves. A lot closer than everyone thought... I hope Germany will do it quicker. 3-0 would be fine
Everyone ? This was not an unforseen scenario, only the XD and WD were guaranteed points for Denmark (with this squad at least) ...
Strong display from Sozonov and Sorokina in XD. Falling behind in 2nd set, but remained their calm composure to once again find their winning formula. Picked up a string of 9 points in a row to retain their lead and carry Russia to victory in this important 1st rubber. This victory meant that Ivanov could strategically tank his match against Zwiebler to save his powers for his MD later. As Schenk probably will win her WS, that MD is a must-win for Russia who will then set up their formidable doubles pairing of Sorokina-Vislova to win the tie!!
Guess they didn't need him . I mean I like the Sozonov/Sorokina pairing but I thought they would be able to catch him out of position more often. Guess not As the Dutch pair and coach commented on yesterday, Sorokina is really dominating in the first three shots at the moment ...
At least you didn't say: It was not an unlogical thought anyway but tactically perhaps this was the best lineup, to have the best MS playing just in case . Eventhough Malkov won the National Championship but Ivanov didn't play singles because he was a bit tired from playing the Asia Super Series events before ...
My tactic for the Russian team would have looked like this: - forget about winning MS - keep the doubles players as fresh as possible
Well done, team Germany. Very good effort! Expect Michels, she played very bad for this level... So nervous, poor Fuchs xDD Very strong performance by JSch/IK! No chance for the Russians, maybe to much pressure playing on homesoil... Hopefully Germany can at least challange Denmark tomorrow. WS and MS have very good chances. Maybe a third point from MD, WD and MX will go to Denmark I believe.
If you are sure of winning XD then yeah. WS you know is for Germany, give up MS then XD is a must win. Will you risk it all on that first match? I guess they did sort of have to yeah, thinking about it some more but Sozonov looked the more tired of the two I think Of course if he was spared and Ivanov exempt of MS duty then I see where you are going with this . It would be a little easier if Nikolaenko was still around and even then beforehand you could not say it is a sure point. Maybe they could have also played Durkin/Sorokina ... But who knows what was Michels injury this week anyway, must not be that bad if she is scheduled for WD as well? And apparently Prokopenko has retired from badminton as well.
Lineups are posted already: - WS: Kjaersfeldt vs Schenk MS: Vittinghus vs Zwiebler WD: Juhl-Pedersen vs Michels-Schenk MD: Boe-Mogensen vs Kindervater-Schoettler XD: Fischer-Pedersen vs Fuchs-Michels
mmh, there are chances, surely! WS should be won, Zwiebler (MS) has a good chance, too. Schenk/Michels mh no idea, but maybe they can suprise the danes. MD has a chance the way they and the danes played (against eng). I hope for a 2-0 lead, so that the Danes have to keep their nerves calm to win