Hope to see Liang Xiaoyu,Yeo Jiamin,Terry Hee/Tan Wei Han, Loh Kean Yew/Loh Kean Hean, and Ryan Ng, make a breakthrough at the SIN Open. All the best.
Unstoppable Tai clinches OUE Singapore Open title The New Paper http://www.tnp.sg/sports/others/unstoppable-tai-clinches-oue-singapore-open-title Tai Tzu-Ying of Taiwan plays a shot against Carolina Marin of Spain during the women's singles final of the Singapore Open badminton tournament in Singapore on April 16, 2017.PHOTO: AFP With the title in her bag, Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying says she will be looking to enjoy the good food in Singapore. PHOTO: XINHUA Cool and calm Taiwanese beats Olympic champion Marin in just 38 minutes Lim Say Heng Sports Correspondent Apr 17, 2017 06:00 am When the last shot landed on Carolina Marin's court yesterday, fans of Tai Tzu-ying, including those seated behind this reporter, leapt to their feet in celebration and surged forward to take pictures of their heroine on their mobile phones. In contrast, the Taiwanese world No. 1 coolly walked to the sides to thank the service judge and umpire, before turning to all four corners of the Indoor Stadium to applaud her fans. Almost shy, the 22-year-old smiled as she thanked the 6,500-strong crowd for their support, in her 21-15, 21-15 OUE Singapore Open women's singles final win over world No. 2 Marin. "I felt like I was playing on home ground today," Tai said via a translator in a courtside interview. "No matter where I play, I always feel like there's a lot of support, which helps me do well." It was her fifth win in as many tournaments since her Hong Kong Open victory last November, and her first in Singapore. "I don't feel anything special (about this achievement), I just hope everyone can be happy watching me play, and that I can enjoy playing on court," the soft-spoken Tai said with a smile, during the post-match media conference. The cool customer was far from being indifferent in her success though. She and her coach briefly met with Taiwan fans outside the stadium after the press session, bowing slightly as she was congratulated by the crowd of about 20, and posing for pictures with them. Tai took the error-strewn match in just 38 minutes by controlling her game better than she did in her 21-19, 21-15 semi-final win over Zhang Beiwen on Saturday. "She (Marin) seemed to be in a rush to 'kill' me... and I knew that I had to be very patient to play her."Taiwan's Tai Tzu-ying, who beat Carolina Marin 21-15, 21-15 in the OUE S'pore Open women's singles final Tai said: "At the start, I forced myself to get into the rhythm quickly and the result was not bad. "She (Marin) seemed to be in a rush to 'kill' me and made a lot of errors, and I knew that I had to be very patient to play her." Tai added that she was mentally prepared for a three-game final against the Spaniard, as she took 86 minutes to beat the same opponent 23-25, 22-20, 21-13 in the Malaysia Open final the Sunday before. An emotional Marin could only rue screwing up her mental game in the final yesterday. The reigning Olympic champion said: "I am really disappointed today, I couldn't keep my focus and was so negative on the court." "I felt really bad, I didn't fight and was unhappy with how I managed the game," said the 23-year-old, who is known for her mental fortitude. "I need to work hard if I really want to become the world No. 1 again." While Tai seems unstoppable now with her five consecutive title wins, she said that there are still chinks in her armour to mend. "I am not very consistent. If my opponent (in the semi-finals) did not make as many errors as I did, I would have lost yesterday. "I need to learn how to control my game when things are not going my way as well." Asked how she would celebrate her victory, a smiling Tai said: "I think I will just eat, there's a lot of good food in Singapore that I couldn't eat during the competition, but I haven't thought of what to eat." RESULTS Men's singles final: Sai Praneeth (Ind) beat Srikanth Kidambi (Ind) 17-21, 21-17, 21-12 Women's singles final: Tai Tzu-ying (Tpe) beat Carolina Marin (Spa) 21-15, 21-15 Men's doubles final: Mathias Boe/Carsten Mogensen (Den) beat Li Junhui/Liu Yuchen (Chn) 21-13, 21-14 Women's doubles final: Kamilla Rytter Juhl/Christinna Pedersen (Den) beat Misaki Matsutomo/Ayaka Takahashi (Jpn) 21-18, 14-21, 21-15 Mixed doubles final: Lu Kai/Huang Yaqiong (Chn) beat Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Tha) 19-21, 21-16, 21-11
Singapore Open: Shock defeat for Olympic champions The New Paper Liliyana Natsir was hampered by a knee injury.PHOTO: THE STRAITS TIMES Lim Say Heng Sports Correspondent Apr 12, 2017 06:00 am Reigning Olympic badminton mixed doubles champions Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir suffered a shock loss in the first round of the OUE Singapore Open last night. The Indonesian world No. 3 pair lost 21-14, 21-16 to Thailand's world No. 11 duo Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai at the Indoor Stadium. "I didn't play well partly because of my injury. I had no time to recover and during the match, I was reluctant to take certain shots because of it," said Liliyana, 31, whose right knee was in bandage yesterday. Tontowi, 29, added: "I didn't feel ready, and by the time I found my rhythm, the scores were too far to come back from." The Indonesians were the biggest names to fall in the US$350,000 (S$491,000) tournament yesterday. Singapore's mixed doubles pair of Terry Hee and Tan Wei Han were made to work for their 21-19, 22-20 win over Indonesia's Ronald Ronald and Melati Daeva Oktavianti. "We were so far away (trailing 13-18 towards the end of the second set) so we had nothing to lose," said Hee, 21. "We just tried to get more points but were preparing ourselves for the rubber set." The world No. 15 pair will meet Chinese world No. 4 Lu Kai and Huang Yaqiong, who won the All-England and India Open titles in recent months, in the second round tomorrow. Tan, 23, said: "They have much more experience and definitely make fewer mistakes, so we have to be very patient as they would be the same." MAIN DRAW Rising starlet Yeo Jia Min was the only Singaporean to make it to today's main draw from yesterday's qualifiers. Despite feeling unwell, the 18-year-old women's singles player beat Indonesians Jesica Muljati and Lyanny Alessandra Mainaky.
http://www.firstpost.com/sports/sin...among-elite-nations-in-mens-game-3392132.html FIRST POST Singapore Open: Does Kidambi Srikanth-Sai Praneeth final mean India is among elite nations in men's game? Shirish Nadkarni Apr, 19 2017 14:41:42 IST For the first time in history, two Indians contested the men’s singles final of a Superseries tournament, the Singapore Open, one of the elite competitions in the annual badminton calendar. Last Sunday, which featured the summit clash between Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth, could hence be considered as a red-letter day in the annals of Indian badminton. B Sai Praneeth and Kidambi Srikanth pose on the podium after the SIngapore Open final. Only on 19 occasions in the past had a Superseries men’s singles final been fought between two players from the same country; and only three nations had featured on that list. Chinese players had claimed that distinction on 17 occasions, while Indonesia and Denmark had achieved the mark once each. Such a happenstance has never before taken place in the Indian women’s game. Saina Nehwal, over the past seven years, has won several Superseries tournaments, but has never been called upon to play against a fellow-countrywoman in a final. Not even at the India Open, which would have meant strong crowd support and familiarity with home conditions for Indian players. In fact, Saina had been the sole trailblazer in Indian badminton before Srikanth won the 2013 China Open, lowering the colours of five-time World Champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist, Lin Dan. Srikanth went on to win the 2015 India Open, and rise to as high as No 3 on the Badminton World Federation (BWF) rankings before a spate of injuries caused him to take a fast snake down into the 30s. Saina’s heir apparent, Pusarla Venkata Sindhu, had to wait five years before she bagged her first Superseries title – the China Open in November 2016. But, with Saina returning from a serious knee injury, sustained during the Rio Olympics three months earlier, the chances of an all-Indian women’s singles final turned remote. Sindhu went on to win her second Superseries crown at the India Open last month, but has since had disappointing results at the Malaysia and Singapore Opens. All these above-mentioned facts beg the question: Has India, in the wake of the Praneeth-Srikanth Singapore Open final, barged into the ranks of the elite badminton nations — China, Denmark, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea — who routinely contest for top honours in the Thomas Cup, symbol of international men’s team supremacy? Despite the euphoria that has suffused the nation, in the wake of the achievement of national coach Pullela Gopichand’s fondest dream, there is need for a reality check. Several factors contributed to the placing of two Indians on the top two rungs of the victory rostrum at the Singapore Badminton Association Hall; and not all of them point towards an Indian surge to the pinnacle of the sport at international level. First and foremost, the tournament was not a Superseries Premier event, equivalent to tennis’ four Grand Slam major events, in which almost all of the world’s top players make it a point to participate. It featured prize money of $350,000, compared to the $600,000 on offer at the Malaysia Open, which had been held just a week earlier. In addition, the Singapore Open was held at the fag end of an exhausting schedule that featured the All England Superseries Premier in the first week of March, followed closely by the India Open Superseries, the Malaysia Open Superseries Premier and the Singapore Open Superseries, the last three in successive weeks. Naturally, participation in the Singapore Open, particularly in the men’s singles, was nowhere near as strong as it had been in the two Super Series Premier events held in the immediate past. The top four men’s singles players, Lee Chong Wei, Chen Long, Lin Dan and Jan O Jorgensen, either stayed away altogether, or cried off at the last moment, citing injury and fatigue. The Singapore Open draw was further weakened by the unexpected first-round defeat of Viktor Axelsen, currently ranked No 3 in the world. Before the giant Dane could get his bearings, he was knocked out at 15-21, 15-21 by the bustling Hong Kong player, Wong Wing Ki Vincent. Korean Son Wan Ho, seeded No 4, had a difficult time in his opening outing against a Korean qualifier, and fell without a whimper in the second round to Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie. In fact, by the quarter-final stage, every one of the seeded stars was eliminated, with Sai Praneeth edging out Thailand’s No.8 seed, Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk, at 21-19 in the final game. It left four unseeded players contesting the semi-finals. Srikanth, meanwhile, had picked up steam from the bottom half, scoring impressive straight-games victories against fifth-seeded Shi Yuqi of China and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia. But he had had to extend every nerve and sinew to come through his second round encounter against another Indonesian, Ihsan Maulana Mustofa, saving three match-points in the decider before coming through. That fighting win had shown Srikanth’s tremendous resolve and mental strength. All these details are being recounted to give the reader an idea of how circumstances had become decidedly propitious for two unseeded Indians, ranked Nos. 29 and 30 on the BWF ladder, to face off against each other in the final. This is not to denigrate their sterling achievements of knocking out players who were either seeded or ranked much higher than them, but to place their praiseworthy achievement in proper perspective. If there is a fault that Indian players have, it is a lack of consistency. All of our top players, most of them emerging from Gopichand Academy, have beaten one or another of the world’s top five stars, at one time or another in the near past. Ajay Jayaram, Srikanth, Sai Praneeth, HS Prannoy, Parupalli Kashyap, Sameer Verma, Sourabh Verma, RMV Gurusaidutt, Siddharth Jain have all notched victories against the topnotchers, with Srikanth’s win over Lin Dan in the 2013 China Open final ranking at the very top. Several of the boys have won Grand Prix Gold events, which rank with the Challenger circuit in tennis. They have also notched up significant victories in the Premier Badminton League, which unfortunately is not considered a representative tournament. But few of them have followed up a sporadic epochal triumph over a top-five player with a necklace of wins that needs to be strung together to win the title at an elite tournament. “The main problem with our men players is inconsistency,” asserts former national champion Vimal Kumar, who is chief coach of the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy and the current coach of Saina. “They can beat anyone in the world, but are found wanting when it means going all the way to the title. Our guys have taken down all the top players, like Chong Wei, Lin Dan, Jorgensen and Axelsen, in one tournament or another. But they have lacked the ability to go all the way. “I think the main reason is the tactical aspect. The ability to choose just the right strokes at the appropriate time is lacking. Similarly, the ability to change strategies during a match situation is lacking. They also seem to get very contented after a couple of good wins. They are very much on par with the others in the matter of basic ability, but these shortcomings are letting them down.” So, a reality check? While there is ample reason for euphoria at the moment, and sufficient evidence to show that Indian men’s badminton is on the right path, and in a far, far better place than it was a few years back, the Indian badminton-lover should show a modicum of sobriety in the short term, and await the posting of results similar to that of the Singapore Open before he can puff up his chest and consider his country to be one of badminton’s elite nations.
Sudirman Cup 2017, Gold Coast Singapore beat Australia today to top Group 2B. Singapore[SGP] defeated [AUS] Australia: 4-1 Time: Thu 5/25/2017 12:00 PM Draw: Sudirman Cup Group 2 - Group 2B Score: 4-1 Match overview 1 XD HEE Yong Kai Terry [SGP] TAN Wei Han [SGP] Bt [AUS] Sawan SERASINGHE [AUS] Setyana MAPASA 21-16 21-6 1-0 0:28 2 MS NG Zin Rei Ryan Bt Ashwant GOBINATHAN 21-16 21-14 1-0 0:29 3 MD Danny Bawa CHRISNANTA HEE Yong Kai Terry ] Bt Matthew CHAU Sawan SERASINGHE 21-14 23-21 1-0 0:34 4 WS YEO Jia Min Bt Hsuan-Yu Wendy CHEN 21-11 21-17 1-0 0:33 5 WD ONG Ren-Ne WONG Jia Ying Crystal Lost Setyana MAPASA Gronya SOMERVILLE 11-21 15-21 0-1 0:34
Statistics Points Won Draw Lost Matches Games Points Singapore 0 1 0 0 4 - 1 8 - 2 196 - 157 Australia 0 0 0 1 1 - 4 2 - 8 157 - 196 Group 2 - Group 2B Points Played Won Draw Lost Matches Games Points 1 [SGP] Singapore 3 3 3 0 0 14-1 28-5 674-494 2 [AUS] Australia 2 3 2 0 1 10-5 20-10 567-466 3 [USA] USA 1 3 1 0 2 4-11 10-22 527-581 4 [AUT] Austria 0 3 0 0 3 2-13 6-27 439-666 Current matches Time Draw Home - Away Score Mon 5/22/2017 12:00 PM Sudirman Cup Group 2 - Group 2B Singapore [2][SGP] - [AUT] Austria [7/8] 5-0 Tue 5/23/2017 6:00 PM Sudirman Cup Group 2 - Group 2B Singapore [2][SGP] - [USA] USA [5/6] 5-0 Thu 5/25/2017 12:00 PM Sudirman Cup Group 2 - Group 2B Singapore [2][SGP] - [AUS] Australia [3/4] 4-1
Group 2A Standing Standings of Sudirman Cup Group 2 - Group 2A 1 [VIE] Vietnam 3 3 3 0 0 13 - 2 28 - 6 685 - 500 2 [CAN] Canada 2 3 2 0 1 8 - 7 17 - 19 648 - 640 3 [SCO] Scotland 1 3 1 0 2 7 - 8 18 - 19 663 - 650 4 [NZL] New Zealand 0 3 0 0 3 2 - 13 9 - 28 525 - 731 I think SGP will have to meet CAN next, while VIE will take on AUS in the semis to determine who will fight in the Group 2 final. It would seem VIE is the team to beat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sudirman_Cup Format "The Sudirman Cup is an international competition that does not stage a qualification round. The competing teams are divided into 7 groups based on their performances. Only teams in group 1 will have a chance to lift the trophy as the teams in other groups fight for promotion. The teams who finish last in the group will be relegated to the lower group, except the final group. The promotion-relegation system was last used in 2009 and teams competing will now grouped by world rankings." I wonder whether SGP will be promoted to Group 1 if we beat everyone in Group 2?
On one hand, I would love Singapore to be promoted to Group 1. On the other, we are not quite near the level of Group 1 players to beat them. It may be detrimental for the players' development to be ranked last in Group 1.
Huh? She is injured? Know what injury? Been a couple of months she hasn't turn up, even in the sudirman cup. Any idea what injury?
I would love SGP to be promoted to G1. Good exposure and still time for our young players to improve their skills. Don't miss such a good opportunity if it comes!
Ohh right knee and hip...been a couple of months.. torn ligaments? Hope not.. Rehab, and physio, come back to her level gonna take at least 6 mths. Speedy recovery..
But this competition is once every 2 yrs. So unless we have a very young team by then the form would be entirely different. Like for Malaysia and China and Denmark. Many of the legends won't be playing next Sudiman cup.
young or old, as long as still in the team, go all out - take the bull by it's horn, that's the only way to improve. A young team should be given the opportunity to play with the established teams - this is the only way to improve. it would be good to if the juniors are sent frequently to overseas tournament to get exposure...then again don't hear a lot about our juniors...:-( Got no $$ to send the team? won't be surprise...
ya, i'm pretty sure that badminton don't receive as much funding as football. just pray that we don't go the way of England.
I think our team is generally younger compared to other teams. The 2 years interval will help our youngsters to hone their skills and as suggested, meanwhile give them the much needed exposure by sending the more deserving players to compete overseas.
England's funding has been cut for this Olympic Cycle (they have the ranking but not the money for the tournament)-- so the nation to "beat" for promotion to tier 1 (by world ranking) is England's Tier 1 "replacement" Germany... Do Singaporean players get sent out to compete as often as the Germans? Singapore doesn't even have a Super Series regular like Marc Zwiebler, or a European circuit regular like Fabian Roth-- so the combined World Ranking of the Singapore team needs to be high enough...
