AUTHOR : CLELY

2015 The STAR AUSTRALIAN Open Super Series  : QUARTERFINALS (29th May 2015) **Discussion thread**

Venue : Sports Centre Olympic Boulevard, Sydney Olympic Park, Sydney-AUS

Total prize-money : US$750,000

Tournament website : http://www.australianbadmintonopen.com.au/

Tournamentsofware link : http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sp…4-9A933DBA0736

Tournament time-table : http://www.australianbadmintonopen.com.au/schedule

Sydney time : http://www.australianbadmintonopen.com.au/schedule

BWF World Superseries link : http://bwfworldsuperseries.com/tourn…ustralian-open

BWF Live Streaming Youtube link : https://www.youtube.com/user/bwf

ORDER OF PLAY (03.00pm local time, 3 courts) => http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sp…736&d=20150529

The quarterfinal round will feature high rated matches despite several title contenders ended their journey here. All Japanese mens and ladies singles have had disastrous outcomes with none of them surviving into the final eight. Let’s take a look who will steal the show in the quarter finals…

Five seeded MS players failed to reach last eight; so many unpredictable outcomes so far. Strong favourite Chen Long will take on another HKG player Vincent Wong WK after he outclassed Hu Yun in last sixteen. China #4 Tian HW gets Englishman Rajiv Ouseph to chase semifinal ticket. At lower half of draw, one intriguing duel will pit Jorgensen v Wang ZM. And the on-fire Axelsen has Thai veteran Boonsak Ponsana who eliminated Son Wan Ho and the resilient Ueda earlier.

The ladies singles top three seeds have marched on and looking forward to three engaging ties, Li XR v Sung JH, Nehwal v Wang SX and Marin v Wang YH. It looks like a pre world championships description proving hard to predict who will nail it. On paper scenario it should be Li, Nehwal and Marin but the gap between them is pretty slim. One surprising quarterfinal contest, the Canadian Michelle Li who played well recently will oppose 2013 World Championships bronze medalist Bae Yeon Ju.

China dominates men’s doubles last eight as they have guaranteed 1 semifinal ticket through Chai B/Hong W v Fu HF/Zhang N. Their teammates Liu XL/Qiu ZH and fresh partnership Liu C/Lu K have tough rivals, Malaysian reunion pair Koo/Tan and current World Champion Ko SH/Shin BC respectively. Last year winner Lee YD/Yoo YS will up against familiar foe Endo/Hayakawa.

Two Chinese ladies doubles are shadowed by three Japanese pairs, another elite pairs who keep going in this category, Maheswari/Polii and Pedersen/Juhl. Interesting to follow Tang JH/Tian Q v Incheon Asian Games gold medalist. Top-seed Matsutomo/Takahashi look convincing to book another semifinal spot in SS level. A long duration match will be expected between Maeda/Kakiiwa v Ma/Tang also Matsuo/Naito v Pedersen/Juhl as well.

It’s China against Korea at XD top half of draw, Xu/Ma v Ko SH/Kim HN and Liu C/Bao YX v Choi SG/Eom HW. The Chinese pairs have slight advantage to cruise into final four. From bottom half, we’ll see Danish finest Fischer/Pedersen v Reginald Lee CH/Chau HW and possibly a tight contest between INA #1 Ahmad/Natsir against Adcock/Adcock. The Indonesian didn’t perform their best at two previous rounds, no surprise if they would lost to the English married couple after Sudirman Cup dismal run.

LIVE TV (court 1, 04.00pm local time) matches :

1) Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zihan (CHN) v Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (MAS)
2) Wang Shixian (CHN) v Saina Nehwal (IND)
3) Chris Adcock/Gabrielle Adcock (ENG) v Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (INA)
4) Carolina Marin (ESP) v Wang Yihan (CHN)
5) Boonsak Ponsana (THA) v Viktor Axelsen (DEN)