Tough matches await Malaysian players in Round of 16. Worst case scenario, all of them could lose to their opponents or maybe LCW will be the lone survivor. For men's matches, can serve as pre-Thomas Cup matches between Malaysia vs Korea, especially for MS1, MD1 and MD2. MS1: LCW vs SWH MD1: GVS/TWK vs LYD/YYS MD2: KKK/TBH vs KSH/SBC Round of 16
The second round match will kick off soon (10.00am local time, 3 court), many interesting encounters to come... Two Chinese players at MS top half of the draw, Chen Long and Tian Houwei have good prospect to meet each other tomorrow, Vincent Wong Wing Ki and Hsu Jen Hao are their today's rival respectively. The slow-starter Chen got trouble to eliminate Zwiebler yesterday before he found the rhythm and sealed the match while Tian was forced into three games by Vittinghus. Englishman Rajiv Ouseph advances into last eight due to Kento Momota walkover. INA last hopeful in this discipline, Jonatan Christie who stunned Chou Tien Chen yesterday will up against HKG veteran Hu Yun. Big names who occupy lower half of draw are predicted to progress, Malaysian hero Lee Chong Wei will face Son Wan Ho, Lin Dan has Thailand experienced player Boonsak Ponsana. Both Jorgensen and Axelsen have tricky test, the well-improved Zainuddin and Tanongsak respectively. Among 8 seeding players, only Nozomi Okuhara dropped 1 game and fought hard against Busanan yesterday. Four intriguing ties at this round, Sung Ji Hyun v P.V. Sindhu, Okuhara v Porntip, Bae Yeon Ju v Saina Nehwal and Li Xuerui v Tai Tzu Ying, no impossible the unseeded WS will surprise their higher-ranked opponent. IND-KOR affairs will be close call with Sung and Nehwal have slight advantage to prevail. Defending champion Carolina Marin, just concluded IND SS winner Ratchanok Intanon also two former champions Wang Yihan and Wang Shixian should have no problem to clear second round hurdle. Both China and Indonesia have guaranteed one quarterfinal slot through Fu HF/Zhang N v Wang YL/Zhang W and Ahsan/Setiawan v Gideon/Sukamuljo. Three home pairs have heavyweight opponent today, Go VS/Tan WK will take on hot-favourite Lee YD/Yoo YS, Hoon TH/Teo KS has recent All England runner-up Endo/Hayakawa and former world number one Koo KK/Tan BH will challenge 2014 World Champion, Ko SH/Shin BC. Two remaining clashes that no less interesting will pit Chai B/Hong W v Pratama/Suwardi and current All England winner Ivanov/Sozonov v Danish #2 Conrad/Kolding. Top-seed and last year champion Luo twin sisters were ousted by the on-fire Japanese ladies Matsuo/Naito. They're slated to meet the reigning Olympic Champion Tian Q/Zhao YL if both pairs pass last sixteen. Another CHN-JPN duel in this category is scripted tomorrow, Matsutomo/Takahashi v Tang YT/Yu Y. The world number one pair have home combination Vivian Hoo/Woon KW while the Chinese will take on Netherlands pair, Muskens/Piek. At bottom half, 1 last eight ticket each has been secured by China and Korea. The relatively new combination, Huang YQ/Tang JH will meet their juniors Chen QC/Jia YF who downed 4th seed Pedersen/Juhl at first round, Jung KE/Shin SC are favoured to overcome their compatriot Go AR/Yoo HW. One more Korean leading WD, Chang YN/Lee SH who had hard times to pass the aggressive Supajirakul/Taerattanachai yesterday are predicted to go further and face second seed Maheswari/Polii tomorrow. The multi-champion Zhang N/Zhao YL have dangerous Korean combo, Shin BC/Chae YJ who beat them at previous meeting in Denmark Premier last October. Another China XD, Liu C/Bao YX and Xu C/Ma J who didn't perform impressive lately will face challenging opponent, Thai young duo Dechapol/Taerattanachai and home star Chan PS/Goh LY respectively. At bottom half draw, all four seeded pairs should be wary to their underdogs rival, Fischer/Pedersen v Yoo YS/Chang YN, Ahmad/Natsir v Fuchs/Michels, Adcock/Adcock v Alexander/Oktaviani and Ko SH/Kim HN v Liu YC/Tang JH. LIVE TV (Court 1, 05.00pm) matches : 1) Michael Fuchs/Birgit Michels (GER) v Tontowi Ahmad/Liliyana Natsir (INA) 2) Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk (THA) v Viktor Axelsen (DEN) 3) Son Wan Ho (KOR) v Lee Chong Wei (MAS) 4) Bae Yeon Ju (KOR) v Saina Nehwal (IND) 5) Lee Yong Dae/Yoo Yeon Seong (KOR) v Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong (MAS)
Watching MD on court 2 and their previous matches it seems like kim sa rang's form has gone down a little.. making a lot of mistakes and poor decisions..
KSR/KKJ will always be a 2nd string pair much alike Lee Jae-Jin & Hwang Ji-Man used to be next to JJS/LYD
HKV on Facebook: "The air condition here has only two modes - hurricane mode or turned off." Impossible to play accurately.
Very pleasantly surprised that Danny and Van made it to the next round by defeating an 8th seed: XD Danny Bawa CHRISNANTA [SIN] Yu Yan Vanessa NEO [SIN] Beat [INA] Praveen JORDAN [8] [INA] Debby SUSANTO 21-19 21-14 0:33
Sorry regarding that MD issue. It is just for me to clarify it here after reading so much of news about it in the internet with lots of heated arguments over there. This is written here for the purpose of clarification and not to create issues before heated arguments crop up here later. That news is just for reminder only. No bad intent on behalf of that.
Cmon! Whattt? Danny/Vanessa can do this?...How disappointing for Praveen/Debby. Is praveen/debby ranking confirmed already to qualify to Rio?
If only I could do LD's Thomas cup dance on this song. BTW, are the lyrics taken from 'writing is on the wall' ?