2013 ALL ENGLAND SS Premier - Day 1 : Qualifying Round (5th March)

Good to see Michelle back on the horse (so to speak). Can't see the American girl giving Michelle much trouble–she was only up 14-11 on Grether, a doubles specialist, when the retirement occurred.

 

Lol, that was exactly what I was thinking.
Twiddling my thumbs with nothing much to watch.
Real action starts tomorrow!

 

This Tan Chun Seang is not half bad. Mind you ZZ is playing at such snail's pace anyone can look good. Don't think this style of play will get his badminton career very far. TCS 8-4 in the rubber

 

It's a winnable match against Eriko as long as Michelle doesn't kill herself with errors. As we know, Eriko will grind it out and let attrition take its course.

 

ZZ trying to up the tempo but TCS is holding on 15-10. Trying more smashes but they're off the mark. 17-10. The writing is on the wall.

 

TCS knocks off ZZ with ease in the rubber 21-12. TCS looked the more committed and determined player. ZZ looked lacklustre.

 

Akshay Dewalkar/Pradnya forces the match to rubber. Hoping for the best..

 

Anybody know why Nicole Grether retired her match?

 

Akshay/pradnya got into the main draw.

[TABLE="class: ruler matches"]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="align: right"][TABLE]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD="align: right"]Akshay DEWALKAR[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD="align: right"]Pradnya GADRE[/TD]
[TD][/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[TD="align: center"]-[/TD]
[TD][TABLE]
[TR="bgcolor: transparent"]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Chun Hei LEE[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD][/TD]
[TD]Hoi Wah CHAU[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]
[/TD]
[TD]22-24 21-14 21-18[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]


Sourabh took the first game against Rajiv Ouseph comfortably 21-13

 

Ouseph has always had this peculiar style that's not particularly pleasing to the eye.

 

And as expected Michelle Li prevails 21-16, 21-13. Hopefully the qualifiers has not taken too much out of her ahead of a tough encounter with Eriko tomorrow

 

Ouseph clears long and Varma is through to R1.

 

I've always felt a bit sorry for him, loads of talent but absolutely no one in England who's near his standard who can push him. Consequently when it gets to the big stage he looks so slow and unexplosive it's almost frustrating.

I'm lying, it is frustrating

 

Not surprised, Varma has a lot of potential. I can recall he's had some good results in the past against better opposition than Rajiv

 

Nice to see White and Adcock are through, from the score it looks like a good performance from them.

 

The Malaysian players did badly in the qualifying rounds.
Mohd Arif Abdul Latif, Zulfadi Zulkifli, Tee Jing Yi and Lydia Cheah were the losers.
Tan Chung Seang and Tan Bin Shen, the non-BAM players, did well to qualify for the main draw.
ZZ was a former junior world champion but he has been struggling since joining the senior rank.
What's wrong when former world junior champions like CJ, CL & VA could do so well in the senior rank?

 

might be their mindset i guess... "I'm the juniors world champ...walking around with atitude...slacking in training..." thus...no results produced after joining the seniors..

Most malaysian young athlete have this problem...its a sad scenario..

 

Fred Tan, the psychologist, used to be on the BAM panel of experts and he also accompanied the players on tour.
If there is no such person now, then BAM should rope in a mind expert immediately so as to help the youngsters, otherwise their potential will go to waste.