Well..well...just back from the SIS. A good day of badminton indeed..with a number of upsets. It was great to meet up with Loh, EastDevil, Ants, and Kyiyu. Loh will surely post some of his photos sometime tomorrow. A mixed day for Team Indonesia. Luluk/Alvent lost narrowly to Jonas Rasmussen/Peter Steffensen. It was tight all the way from the start till 18-18 and 19-18 in the first and second set respectively. From then, the Danes seemed to have better concentration and went for the kill. The danes won 21-18, 23-21. Too bad Next, Simon Santoso also lost narrowly 23-25 in the first set to Mohd Hafiz Hashim. He was at game pt, but could not kill the game. In the second game, Hafiz had a 14-7 lead, but Simon managed to catch up till 14-14. Then, Hafiz upped the tempo and went for the kill. He wrapped up the second set 21-15. Simon has improved, but, he definitely needs to be more initiative. More playing hours against these higher ranked opponents will surely help him. As for the women's doubles, Jo Novita/Greysia Polii had a hard time in the first set, with the Bulgarian pair keep pegging them and they even had a game pt at 20-19. It was at this pt that Jo/Greysia decided to kill of their challenge. The second set was a walkover and the Indonesian pair won convincingly 21-9. Flandy Limpele/Sigit Budiarto also had a hard time beating the Chinese Taipei pair. It was more like a practice match to them, with flashes of brilliance only when they needed to do so. The first set went to deuce and it finished 27-25. It was better for the Indonesian pair in the second set, but they only managed to win 21-18. Not a convincing performance and they will need to be better to beat CCM/KKK tomorrow afternoon. The locals had a good day. Ronald Susilo and Hendry Saputra Kurniawan/Hendra Wijaya are through to the quarter-final. Hendry/Hendra surprised the crowds yet again as they did the unexpected by beating the second seeded Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah pretty convincingly in 2 straight sets 21-12, 21-12. The home crowds were ecstatic and that match certainly created the best atmosphere for today. Ronald also won in 3 sets: 21-19, 15-21, 21-9, but, it was a laboured performance from him. It was also the longest match of the day at 71 mins. At times, it resembled a practice match with long rallies. Eventually, the Vietnamese had to surrender the third set because of a cramp? Ronald will face Peter Gade next. Finally, I also watched young Saina Nehwal facing the 7th seeded Bulgarian Petya Nedeltcheva. She's still very raw and need to work on her strokes. Despite that, a good effort for her in the second set.
quick round up. From my eyes, here are my quick sum up. Even though the big guns are not here, the games are quite interesting. Hafiz did well against simon, easy. Ronald had a great workout from the Vietnamese. Marathon game. Wonder if Ronald can recover. Hopefully. Gade almost beaten. Phew.... Johanssen is easy and cool. Ismail did well against india. Chen Hong strolling through. Bao CL made to sweat a bit. Friday shd be a good game. See yah there. Am at the corporate box area. Come say hi leh... rgds
same from me also, thanks for the updates badMania.. no, he's not a reporter, but a pretty darn diligent BC/BF "match-preview-writer" and "match-review-writer"..hehe
thanks for all the pre-match review......... u r just like a reporter sitting next to the court recording everything.
wot happen to Yao Jie? still didn't recover from injury?! sorry..i dunno too much abt Julia..but she really made me very impressive
Yao Jie looked lethargic...even when it's only the first set Julia was all over her and she indeed deserved the win. She also nearly beat Kanako Yonekura. I only watched the ending of that match. It was 20-20 and it was her mistakes which eventually led to Kanako's victory. One comment which EastDevil made during dinner is that Julia needed a doctor badly since she was coughing so many times in her match against Yao Jie
Day 2 - Women's Singles PS. again I know nothing about photography. please pardon me if the photos are poorly taken.
Yeah, I think Julia was having a bad cough throughout the match. And Yao Jie is indeed lethargic throughout.
