A nice payday for Simon too with US$9k in his pocket today. He will rise up to the top 40 ranking and slowly making his way back to the top 20. His next tourney is still within the region, in the Singapore SS, where he needs to crawl from the qualifying rounds. He will face Pannawit Thongnuam, followed by either Tan Chun Seang or Derek Wong Zi Liang for a place in the Main Draw. If he can progress, a tough tie against Tian Houwei awaits him.
Up next is Pelatnas's new XD pairing of Praveen Jordan/Debby Susanto. They are being groomed to be INA's no 2 XD pair after Owi/Butet. Jordan is still 20 years old while Debby will be 25 this year. Last year, Jordan was still playing with Vita Marissa and they won 2 GPG Gold titles and 1 GP title, rising up to no 7 in the World Ranking. An impressive feat for the 19 yo Jordan then. Can he repeat this with Debby?
Still no rhythm from the INA pair as they made tons of unforced errors. The CHN pair takes the first-set 21-14.
A terrible display from Jordan/Debby, aptly concluded by yet another error by Jordan who must have contributed at least 1 set to the CHN pair. They really must improve a lot before they can even reach the level of top 10!
Indeed, Lu Kai is a power smasher, much like his senior Xu Chen, and taller too. His reflexes and defense is not bad as well.
It can be very intimidating when you're forced to lift the shuttle knowing Lu Kai will be there waiting to rain smashes on you.
He's Xie Zhongbo, who used to partner Zhang Yawen to be CHN's 2nd pair behind Zheng Bo/Gao Ling during the run-up to Olympics 2008.
Praveen Jordan needs to learn a lot not to make so many unforced errors in a match like today. Tontowi Ahmad will be a role model for that as I remembered he was also horrendous when he first started out with Liliyana Natsir in 2010. It's also quite apparent that Vita Marissa is superior to Debby Susanto as a mentor and also a partner for younger player. Let's see how Jordan/Debby progress after today. They are expected to progress to the Main Draw in both India and Singapore SS but Liu Cheng/Bao Yixin and their team-mate Riky Widianto/Richi Puspita Dili will await them in R32. Difficult for them to earn lots of ranking pts in those 2 tourneys. At most R16 perhaps in Singapore and R32 in India.
This is a more attractive match to watch than the error-strewn XD match. The Singaporean pair looks promising.
My prediction went all wrong Simon back on winning circle although just by the tiniest margin Firda and Jordan/Debby
