A very good result by Hendra A. Gunawan/Joko Riyadi as they beat Jens Eriksen/Martin Lundgaard Hansen in two very very close sets 22-20, 21-19. This will mark their first victory over a top 5 pair perhaps? Today, they will face Anthony Clark/Robert Blair, the wily veteran pair which has been a nemesis of Kido/Hendra this year. In the XD, Flandy Limpele/Vita Marissa also opened up their campaign with a good victory over Thomas Laybourn/Kamilla Rytter-Juhl 21-16, 21-14. They will face the current World Champion (but probably still in holiday mood) Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms in the semi-finals today. Robertson/Emms lost to Xia Xuanze/Zhao Tingting 16-21, 16-21. Simon Santoso's challenge ended gallantly after 2 rubber-sets losses to Peter Gade (11-21, 21-16, 15-21) and a very close one to Wong Choong Hann (18-21, 21-10, 21-19). The later 2 players will meet today for a place in the Final tomorrow. In the other group, Mohd Hafiz Hashim lost to Kenneth Jonassen easily 14-21, 15-21, but, he beat Chen Yu in rubber-sets 19-21, 21-10, 23-21.
I hope that Simon can improve next year..if not...tough to count Indonesian single players especially Tommy, Alamsyah, Rivai need to be grilled more often in coming tournaments.
Yesterday I had dinner with all Indonesian players at a Indonesian restaurant... hahahaha... with some Indonesian embassy people as well.. Nice Nice Nice.. Simon lost both matches yesterday.. Chen Yu is ill and has fever.. get well soon!!!
wow, that's great for you yannie. can't wait to see CTF/LWW in action, hopefully they will play seriously. is misbun/rexy in copenhagen as well?
http://www.badminton.dk/Nyheder/Nyhedsarkiv 2006/December/Jonassen er et saet fra finalen.aspx . check this outfit
It turns out that PBSI's decision to send Hendra A. Gunawan/Joko Riyadi paid off as the INA pair won their second game, beating the current World-Championship runners-up in straight sets 21-9, 21-17. AG/Joko started off brilliantly in the first set with a 11-4 lead at the interval. There was no turning back as they stretched the lead to 18-8 and eventually took the first set 21-9. The early stage of the second set started the same way as the INA pair raced to a 8-1 lead. However, there was a sign of revival as the wily English pair slowly narrowed the deficit and only trailed 7-11 at the interval. AG/Joko continued their fine momentum and extended their lead to 17-10, only to see another comeback by the English pair. Clark/Blair chalked off 5 consecutive points and were within 2 points of the INA pair at 17-19. However, AG/Joko took the last 2 points of the match to seal the second set 21-17 and they are now through to the Final tomorrow, facing against either Fu Haifeng/Cai Yun or Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah. So, PBSI's no 3 pair has now beaten two top 10 pairs consecutively. It will be a major boost to their confidence if they can win again tomorrow. But, a runners-up finish is already a very good achievement. Can this mark their rise to the top 10 position?
2nd match in less than 5 hours? wow! Now they show CTF/LWW winners against the Danes.MAS plays Fu/Cai for the second match in a day while CHN has one day's rest. MAS can beat CHN on full tank but on half tank? Congrats CTF/LWW! Good luck!
Seems Robertson/Emms are behaving like Taufik recently, just fooling around in unimportant matches. I remember they did poorly in some open before the WC and then viola! They are very strong in the WC.
Please, no excuses like that.. just so lame. Gade played a 3 setter prior to this match, too and Gade is 30 years old, kind of the same as WCH. Peter Gade will always dominate Copenhagen Masters!!! Now move on to the next year and win some more... but beat KJ tomorrow first.
the right excuse is WCH has been away for awhile and has lost a bit of muscle mass.....he's obviously not at his best..... remember he was the winner of this event 3 yrs ago? as for CTF/LWW.....CTF was fooling around on the court for much of the match....they were lifting shuttles to Fu/Cai....well....CTF was having alot of fun.....
Saw that too. Was a bit angry with him. I think he needs to change his attitude if he still wantsto play for a few years.or else, their playing days have come to an end.
ok, as a Peter Gade fan I'm willing to accept that WCH is surely not at his best after his injury during the Thomas Cup . Still it seems that he have hard time especially againt Gade and not giving him a big challenge (at least so the score says), hopefully he can regain his form because he is also one of my favorites ...
Watched the match and WCH is far from hes best, very far! However Gade played very good and seems he have changed his game style a little, using some offensive clears and some backhand clears. What comes to WCH you can see he lost some pace, and since WCH isnt as great a player as gade when it comes to pure technique and skills he simply cannot win.
