I thought Gu Juan deserves a mention here as Singapore's current most promising professional with her recent performance at this year's All-England when she advanced to the quarterfinals as a qualifier. As posted by me on 10 Oct 2008, Juan almost did not make it because: "Two more female foreign-born players quit SBA I'm extremely sad to read from today's tabloid, "Today" that China-born Gu Juan and the taller Zhang Beiwen have quit the National team because of purported biased treatment from their Chinese coach. BTW that Chinese coach has left as is replaced by the famous Luan Ching. These two girls were talent-scouted and came to Singapore when they were around 13 years of age. After 5 years of training and development, now they decided to leave. I'm sure they can help Singapore gain a final berth in the next Uber Cup now that they have blossomed at 18 and have international exposure and some creditable individual results. So it is very sad that they should leave at this stage. I certainly hope something can be done to redress the situation and enable congenial conditions to return to SBA for our talented girls to change their minds. They are still young and can contribute to Singapore's attempts to make a name in the badminton world." Juan was in the "wilderness" for more than a year and returned last year to rejoin the national squad. Her present coach must have motivated her to perform at her best. Unfortunately not so for her teammate, Zhang Beiwen, who was again being punished for ill-discipline and may have her contract terminated. A writeup on Juan's AE performance in TODAY: Gu Juan keeps Singapore's flag flying high A nation will wake up this morning hoping she's made history by Low Lin Fhoong 04:46 AM Mar 12, 2011 All England Championships SINGAPORE - Badminton fans here will wake up Saturday morning eager to find out if Singapore shuttler Gu Juan has made history at the 2011 All England Championships. The 21-year-old stunned No 8 seed Bae Youn Joo of South Korea in the last 16 in Birmingham on Thursday night and will take on Bulgaria's Petya Nedelcheva on Friday night (5.20am Saturday, Singapore time) for place in the last four. No Singapore woman has reached the semi-finals of the All England, one of the most prestigious badminton tournaments in the world. Indeed, the last time a Singapore shuttler caused a stir at the All England was seven years ago, when Ronald Susilo reached the men's semi-finals. Gu Juan, 21, has been steadily sniping away at her rivals to advance to the quarter-finals. She is the only Singaporean left in the tournament after the first round exits of women's doubles pair Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari, mixed doubles pair Chayut Triyachart and Yao Lei, and men's doubles team of Triyachart and Hendri Kurniawan Saputra. Her campaign started in the qualifiers, where she easily bumped off Indonesia's Adriyanti Firdasari 21-12, 21-12, before beating compatriot Fu Mingtian in three games. The Singaporean, ranked world No 46, followed it up by defeating Hong Kong's Chan Tsz Ka 2-1 and advance to the last 16 where she stopped Bae. The Singapore camp is now hoping Gu Juan's fairytale journey will continue against the Bulgarian Nedelcheva, the world No 14. In their only meeting at the 2006 Singapore Open, Nedelcheva triumphed 23-21, 21-17 in the first round. Said Chew Keet Hou, Singapore Badminton Association's high performance manager: "She beat the Korean girl at the German Open (Grand Prix Gold) last week and I'm glad she did it again. "It's a good thing and we have to monitor her and see if she can get a breakthrough and get into the world's top 20 to 30." Should Gu Juan, the 2007 World Junior Championship bronze medallist, advance, she will have to contend with world No 5 Saina Nehwal of India or the 17th ranked Eriko Hirose of Japan. (Unfortunately Juan lost to Netya in straight games 16-21, 19-21 in the QF. But if she continues to be committed and train hard under coach Luan, I'm sure she'll do Singapore proud one day. Surprisingly, Xing Aiying, who used to be Singapore's No. 1 WS after the retirement of Li Li, is out of sight now. She must be out of form.)
Gu Juan's performance in the NZ International Challenge 2011 Just to followup on Gu Juan's progress, here are relevant posts on her recent performance in the recently concluded Li-Ning NZ International Challenge 2011: 04-04-2011 10:36 AM Post #218 Loh Originally Posted by phil-mm: Quote: "I think Gu Juan has performed really well, considering that she is in both the WS and WD, and that they're playing multiple matches per day for each category. And especially so for her win over ZL, who beat TTY (Tai Tsu Ying), who in turn beat MKY. Both Danny and Vanessa are good players." Unquote Yes I was quite surprised when Juan beat the mercurial Zhu Lin (that was the last time I saw her in Singapore). Mind you, ZL is no pushover when she even beat the young and talented Taiwanese, TTY. But Juan's teammate, Fu Mingtian, whom I expected more from, has had a miserable outing! (ZL was World Champion once.) En route to the Final, Gu Juan defeated: R1 - Tse Ying Suet (HKG) 21-15, 21-14 (36') QF - Chan Tsz Ka (HGK) 17-21, 21-13, 21-15 (50') SF - Zhu Lin (CHN) 21-16, 21-18 (40') and lost to: F - Sayaka Sato (JPN) 14-21, 13-21 (35') Hope GJ will continue to improve in more tournaments to come.
Gu Juan shines in China Masters 2011 by Low Lin Fhoong 04:46 AM Sep 15, 2011 SINGAPORE - Six months after making her breakthrough at the 2011 All England Open Championships when she reached the last eight, Singaporean shuttler Gu Juan was back in winning form yesterday. The world No 25 upset the hosts by beating Li Xuerui, world No 16, in the first-round action at the US$200,000 (S$249,200) Li Ning China Masters in Changzhou. The Singaporean fought back from 1-0 (21-11) down against Li, the Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold champion, clinching the next two games 22-20, 21-18 to advance to the next stage. She faces a huge task in the round of 16 today, with a match-up against top seed Wang Yihan of China at the Olympic Sports Centre Xincheng Gymnasium. Team-mate Fu Mingtian will go up against second seed Wang Shixian, also from China, after coming through a hard-fought battle with Pai Hsiao Ma of Taiwan, prevailing 2-1 (14-21, 21-13, 21-19). Singapore's Xing Aiying is also through after a 14-21, 21-15, 23-21 win over China's Chen Xiaojia, and will meet sixth seed Tine Baun of Denmark. LOW LIN FHOONG Gu Juan is in the round of 16 in the Li Ning China Masters. TODAY FILE PHOTO
Gu Juan Female Badminton player Country: Singapore Date of birth: May 26, 1990 Height: 5'2" (1.60m) Weight: 55 Kgs. Current rankings: Womens singles: 25 Womens doubles: 60
Now you got the picture right, cobalt! I hope Gu Juan will make up for her short height with smooth footwork, precision and powerful strokes, haha! Actually her net play is not bad.
Phew!!! *wipes brow* I'd hate to have you chasing me around the world with a stick because of a wrong pic!
World champ Wang too hot for Gu Juan by Low Lin Fhoong 04:46 AM Sep 16, 2011 SINGAPORE - Hours after knocking out China's world No 16 Li Xuerui in the first round of the women's singles at the US$200,000 (S$248,800) Li Ning China Masters, Singaporean badminton player Gu Juan was not as lucky against top seed Wang Yihan yesterday. Ranked 25th in the world, the 21-year-old took on reigning world champion Wang for a spot in the quarter-finals, but struggled to cope with the Chinese shuttler's fiery smashes, losing 21-15, 21-12. Newly-crowned Vietnam Grand Prix Open champion Fu Mingtian was also bundled out in the Round of 16, going down 21-15, 21-12 to China's second seed Wang Shixian. Team-mate Xing Aiying was similarly dispatched by Tine Baun of Denmark, crashing out 21-14, 21-15. Meanwhile, the Republic's doubles pair of Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari will be looking to make up for the disappointment of their finals loss at last month's Vietnam Open, when they take on the Danish pair of Georgina Bland and Helena Cable in the first round of the Yonex Belgian International. The eight-member Singapore contingent will also feature in the men and women's singles, doubles and mixed doubles events at Mechelen city's Sportoase Leuven arena.
Gu Juan dumps Japan's Sato by Low Lin Fhoong Updated 09:29 PM Sep 22, 2011 SINGAPORE - Shuttler Gu Juan is through to the quarterfinals of the US$200,000 (S$261,300) Yonex Open Japan 2011 after posting a 2-1 victory over Japanese star Sayaka Sato on Thursday. Keen to avenge her defeat to world No 17 Sato at the Li-Ning New Zealand International Challenge finals in April, the 21-year-old, who is ranked 23rd in the world, stormed to a 21-16 lead in the first game before Sato bounced back to clinch the next 21-11 and level the score. All hope seemed lost for Gu Juan as she trailed 14-19 in the third, but the gutsy Singaporean fought back to 19-19 before clinching the next two points to win the match 21-16, 11-21, 21-19. She will face fourth seed Saina Nehwal of India (No 5) in Friday's quarterfinal for a spot in the semi-finals against German Juliane Schenk or Wang Shixian of China. The Republic's other women's singles representative, Fu Mingtian, was ousted 21-17, 21-16 by Nehwal in the round of 16. LOW LIN FHOONG
Singapore Open Badminton: Singapore’s Gu Juan progresses into the women’s singles QF Story by REDintern Stefanus Ian. Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports Singapore’s Gu Juan is the only Singaporean player to make the quarter-finals after beating Japan’s Ai Goto 16-21, 21-16, 21-15 in a round-of-16 match. (Photo 1 © Vanessa Lim/Red Sports) Singapore Indoor Stadium, Thursday, June 16, 2011 — Singapore’s Gu Juan progressed into the quarter-finals of the women’s singles badminton competition at the Li-Ning Singapore Open after beating Ai Goto 16-21, 21-16, 21-15. In winning her round-of-16 match, Gu kept the Singapore flag flying after the last-surviving Singapore doubles pair were knocked out in the round-of-16. The team of Xing Aiying and Chen Jiayuan were defeated comprehensively by the tournament’s fourth seeds, Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito of Japan, 21-12, 21-15. In the singles match, Gu made an unconvincing start, losing the first game 21-16. She was unable to cope with Goto’s drop shots through the first game, especially to the right half of the court. Goto, who had knocked out the Thai seventh seed, Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, in the previous match, easily wrapped up the first game with four straight points when the scores were 17-16. Gu recovered her composure in the next game and raced to an early 4-0 lead. With the momentum clearly in her favour, Gu played much more aggressively, forcing Goto to make several unforced errors. The Japanese grew frustrated, shaking her head in disbelief at some of the mistakes she made. The early lead proved too much for the world 23rd-ranked player as Gu closed out the second set 21-16. With the match poised at 1-1, neither player was able to surge ahead in the third set as fatigue set in. Both players were visibly spent and every point was a battle. However, spurred on by the vocal local supporters, Gu managed to pull away, scoring five consecutive points to tighten her grip on the match. Goto made a late charge towards the end, closing to within two points at 17-15. That would prove to be the closest she would get as Gu held her challenge off to win the rubber game 21-15, and the match. Gu will next face the tournament’s third seed, China’s Wang Xin, in the quarter-finals on Friday. 5 Jan 2012 KOREA OPEN SUPER SERIES PREMIER 4-8 JAN 2012 Apart from reaching the QF of the Singapore Open last June, Gu Juan is on course to win more WR points for the London Olympic Games this year as she advances to tomorrow's QF of the on-going lucrative Korea Open. Last year, Gu has already made headlines in the Singapore badminton media when "the 21-year-old stunned No 8 seed Bae Youn Joo of South Korea in the last 16 in the All-England at Birmingham". In R1 yesterday she defeated Porntip Buranaprasertsuk 21-13, 14.21, 21-14. Remember Porntip gave a walkover to teammate Ratchanok during the recent India Open. She followed up today by blowing away Taiwanese wonder kid "Typhoon" Tai Tzu Ying 21-15, 21-18 in R2. And for tomorrow, she will do battle with either Yip Pui Yin (HKG) or Shixian Wang (#2 CHN). Chances are she will meet Wang SX and it will be more difficult for her. But if Gu Juan is able to overcome either Yip or Wang, she will make many fans very happy.
