AVIVA SINGAPORE OPEN - Boonsak strikes again

Boonsak must be fond of odd numbers. In 2007, He had been crowned champion, to every one’s surprise. This year, after a rather dull few months in 2009, it is also a surprise to see the soft spoken Thai reaching that stage, yet the way he played to beat former Asian Champion Park Sung Hwan showed luck had nothing to do with it.

In spite of leading from quite a big margin in the beginning of the match, the Thai had to come back from one game down as it was finally Park who had taken the first game 21/19. The crowd was clearly cheering for the humble Thai, who used variety to avoid Park’s attacks coming from high and Boonsak finally took the second game 21/18, at the public’s delight.

The third game promised to be another close battle, but after the switch of sides – 13/13 exactly, Park seemed lost on the court after a couple of rallies were both shuttlers diving everywhere. Ponsana, very careful in his net play and giving no opportunity for the Korean to lead the rallies, scored no less than 9 points in a row, leaving Park speechless. “I don’t know what happened at the end. He just made mistakes and I kept pushing him and taking the attack as my coach was advising me” said the Thai shuttler, who has put his law studies on the hold for now.

“It feels good to prove I can do well again. After the Olympics, there were a lot of questions about my ability to keep playing and go for another four years. It was difficult, but I thought I could. This year, I have been injured but I feel like I’m coming back to a good level. However, today, I used a lot of energy on court” said Boonsak after beating Park for the first time ever. “I haven’t thought about the match tomorrow against Bao and Chen. I am just very happy I have already reached the final, and I think I can beat any of them. At least, I will try my best” he added.

It will finally be Bao Chunlai as the tall left hander seemed to have recovered from his knee injury, proving his fitness against his younger compatriot Chen Jin in a splendid match. Both shuttlers used all the strokes in the book during the whole match but Bao’s soft touch made the difference and he went on to book his ticket for the final 21/19 – 21/18.

Old timers back on track

Zhou Mi and Xie Xingfang have been wearing out badminton benches for quite some time. And they will again be featured in a major event’s final, as both veteran players beat their younger opponents of the day. Top seed Zhou Mi obviously enjoyed playing Wang Lin even if it took some time for her to finish off her match when she wasted 7 match points before finally winning 22/20 – 21/18.

“It’s good to play upcoming Chinese players like Wang Lin. They are the future of badminton and I had fun playing against her today” said Zhou, just as if she was still part of the Chinese team. Yet it will be the Hong Kong flag rising on final day, against Xie Xingfang, who had much more trouble to beat the left handed Jiang Yanjiao, 17/21 – 21/10 – 21/19

The women’s double will be an all Asian affair, with last night’s winner Juhl and Frier-Kristiansen unable to convert a 3 game point opportunity in the first game against Polii and Maheswari. Losing it 20/22 eventually may have led the Danes to lose confidence in the second as the Indonesians were all over the place, controlling the rallies and edging their taller opponents 21/12 in the second.

“I think they might have been a bit scared to win in the first game and on our side, we took our time and tried to control our nerves. Now, I hope we can fare as well in the final” said a delighted Polii.

They’ll have the difficult task to play another set of older players - Zhang Yawen and Zhao Tingting, who outplayed Korea’s second best pair of Ha and Kim, in spite of a better start from the latter – the Koreans failed to convert an 18/13 lead in the first game, which proved fatal. The experienced Chinese, having won the first game 22/20 didn’t let their chance go in the second with a 21/18 success, giving the ever smiling Zhang Yawen a second chance at gold on Sunday – she also qualified in the mixed.

The mixed doubles will be an all China affair – quite unusual for the BWF World Super Series where China has not scooped both gold and silver for quite some times, but this time, neither world’s number ones Widianto/Natsir, nor Olympic champions Lee Young Dae and Lee Hyo Jung were up to matching China’s powerhouse.

The Indonesians lost in the worst manner, 20/22 in both games, against Xie Zhongbo and Zhang Yawen, not even able to try their luck in a decider, where anything is possible. As for the Koreans Lee and Lee, the nightmare continues with a 8^th straight loss to Zheng Bo, partnering Gao at the time and Ma Jin now. The 5^th seeds from China played a very steady and offensive game to beat the mighty Koreans 21/18 – 21/14.

Nathan and Clark stand for Europe

Nathan Robertson and Anthony Clark are still alive in the men’s double draw after so many upsets have occurred. After their stunning performance on Thursday where they beat Koo and Tan of Malaysia, the unseeded English pair was taking on unheralded Chen and Lin of Chinese Taipei.

“It was difficult to play against them as we hardly knew them and we knew they had played phenomenally well to beat Boe and Mogensen, so we knew we had to play our best, especially in these windy conditions where the gap between pairs is narrower” said Anthony Clark.

And the Brits proved their worth, edging out their opponents of the day in just two games. But it was a highly fought battle for Robertson and Clark. Both games looked quite similar with the Europeans leading all the way, by a one or two point margin, relying on soft play, while the Chinese Taipei players were hoping to bring higher pace to the game.

“The shuttles were really slow today and were getting slower along the way, and it brought more rallies into the match, which might be more difficult for the players, but I think, more entertaining for the spectators” said Nathan Robertson. The Milton Keynes residents were caught up to 19/19 in the first game, then again, from 20/17 to 20/19 in the second game, but unforced errors from their opponents in key points made it easier for the Brits to scoop both games before even going to over time – 21/19 in both, to clinch their first ever major final.

“I don’t think we’ve ever been in a final of major tournament in men’s doubles before” said Robertson. “We had won several lower ranked tournaments, but we never entered a final of a Super Series finals or a 5 star event – as it was in the past. It shows that we are still improving” added Clark.

The duo had been one of Europe’s top pairs before splitting up to focus on the mixed doubles only. “At the time, with the old scoring system, it was almost impossible to play high level in two events, but now, the 21 points is ok. We know we won’t be spending more than one hour on court so we can still play in both events” said Clark.

Yet, beaten in the mixed – Clark with Kellogg and Roberston with Wallwork, the duo could then prepare better for their only category left, but when asked what their target was as a new old pair, Robertson joked and said with a laugh : “We want to be world number one and win the world championships. No, seriously, we’re playing together for the fun of it, because we enjoy ourselves. We know we’re not an usual pair on court and it troubles some of the best pairs, so, we hope to fare well, but we haven’t set ourselves any targets, even if the world championships are a big event and everyone likes to bring back medals” He said.

“The only thing we really want is to play our best level. It’s not about the others, but about training hard and playing well together” added Clark.

The duo was playing the first semi final and were hoping that Denmark’s Paaske and Rasmussen would come on top of their confrontation against Kido and Setiawan. “We hope to play the Danes as we’ve beaten them in Malaysia this year”. Unfortunately, their wish was not to be granted as the Danes were stunned by Olympic champions Kido and Setiawan 21/12 – 21/16

Finals line up

MS : Boonsak Ponsana (THA) Vs Bao Chunlai (CHN)

WS : Xie Xingfang (CHN) Vs Zhou Mi (HKG)

MD : Clark/Robertson (ENG) Vs Kido/Setiawan (INA)

WD : Polii/Maheswari (INA) Vs Zhang/Zhao (CHN)

Mx : Zheng/Ma (CHN) Vs Xie/Zhang (CHN)

Posted by Lucas Liau on 11:32 AM. Filed under News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0