Fran/Rendra were sloppy in the second set, leading 16-11 at one stage, only to relinquish the lead and ended up losing the second set and match! Actually, Rian/Yoke defeated this Polish pair in the Italian Challenge late last year 21-12, 21-19.
The remaining Djarum players left in Polish Open 2008: XD QF Fran Kurniawan/Shendy Puspa Irawati vs Wojciech Szkulardczky -- I think the Djarum pair can win this one here WS QF Juliane Schenk [1] vs Sylvinna Kurniawan -- Sylvi has done well in terms of progressing to QF, however, the German top-seed should be too experienced for her. I hope I am wrong here. WD QF Meiliana Jauhari/Shendy Puspa Irawati vs Yuka Hayashi/Yukina Imura -- Mel/Shendy defeated the top-seed in R16 and they stand a very good chance of at least a SF Finish here.
Kurniawan&Wijaya played 2nd game on the worse side of the court (light). But they lost 1st game too...
Petr Koukal....a man to watch....playing well in recent tourneys....... The next rising star from europe...after PG,KJ and Wacha......
Mel/Shendy and Fran/Shendy have won their QF matches, while Sylvi lost her's as expected. XD SF Fran Kurniawan/Shendy Puspa Irawati vs Chris Adcock/Gabrielle White [5] -- Fran/Shendy have done well so far, qualifing for SF. Can they go all the way to the Final? WD SF Meiliana Jauhari/Shendy Puspa Irawati vs Kamilla Augustyn/Nadiezda Kostiuczyk [3] -- I hope Mel/Shendy can surprise me later...
I just want to say a congrats to both the Canadian gentlemen still in the race! Andrew and Bobby both in the semi-finals - makes me proud
Shendy in 2 finals They did!!!! Two INA pairs in the finals!!! Fran-Shendy defeated Chris-Gabrielle [5] 21-17, 21-14... One BIG test tomorrow: hometown favorites and #1 seed: Robert Mateusiak-Nadiezda Kostiuczyk Mel-Shendy defeated Kamilla-Nadiezda [3] 21-19, 15-21, 21-17... So, they have defeated the #1 and #3 seed. Tomorrow they will face one more test: #2 seed Elin-Johanna
All Polish MD finals... Apparently, Adam Cwalina-Wojciech Szkudlarczyk is quite a tough hometown MD pair... They are now in the finals to challenge local established heroes Logosz-Mateusiak... Now I don't feel so bad that Fran-Rendra lost... they lost to a capable hometown pair, not some random unknowns... I got reports from the INA representative in Poland that Adam & Wojciech are playing with unbelieveable confidence right now...
Yup...what a result for Mel/Shendy especially Let's see how they fare today. I hope Team Djarum goes home with at least 1 title.
Richard Vaughan seems to have recovered and gained his form now......He played good in the last three or four tournaments.......
Team Djarum continues to do well in European tourneys.... Meiliana Jauhari/Shendy Puspa Irawati have won the WD title after they beat the second-seed Johanna Persson/Elin Berglom 21-11, 21-19. They have beaten the top 3 seeds (ranked 17th, 24th and 25th) in this tourney and collected 4000 ranking pts! Congratulations to them!
Meiliana Jauhari/Shendy Puspa Irawati should be ranked in the top 35 now after their victory in Poland this week, slightly above Lita Nurlita/Nitya Krishinda. They have won 1 International Series (Bahrain) and 2 International Challenge events now (Indonesia and Poland). They also finished runner-up in the NZ Open GP last year. They should now focus to win a GP event this year and achieve some creditable results (QF) in the Asian GP Golds (Philippines, Thailand, Macau) and Super Series (esp Singapore & Indonesia). Meanwhile, the experienced home pair Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Kostiuczyk proved to be too much for Fran Kurniawan/Shendy Puspa Irawati as they won in straight sets 21-14, 21-13. A very creditable achievement by Fran/Shendy considering that XD is not their main events. Their ranking will shoot up from 129 to the top 90 next week.
I just found out too. Excellent!!! Lita-Nitya is ranked 36 now, with accumulated total points: 24560 Mel-Shendy is ranked 38 now, with accumulated total points: 22930... but after this win... their total should rise to 26500. which should put them to rank 34 or something around that after the Polish Open result is calculated by BWF. Another 4000 points at the Finnish Open next week will make the total 29330, which could make the rank #29... *I'm hopeful*
IMHO, its a tough draw for them at the Finnish International Challenge I just saw that PBSI also sends a sizeable contingent (including some newly recruited Pelatnas players) to the Osaka International Challenge next week, concurrent to the Finnish International Challenge as well as the India Open GP Gold. It will be a busy week for INA second-stringers and Olympic hopefuls .
Exactly! They should endeavor to win a GP tournament this year... *actually, they should have done so last year too* Candidate GPs: Vietnam, Bulgaria, Bitburger [Luxemburgh], Dutch... USA and NZ this year coincides with PON [the Indonesian national multi-event championship]. Russia coincides with the Indonesian Badminton National Championships.
