YONEX-SUNRISE HONG KONG OPEN 2009 - Gade or Jorgensen?
News 11:33 AM
Oddly enough, Peter Gade has never beaten Jan Jorgensen in an international tournament. They met twice, and each time, it was the youngster who beat his legendary friend.
The losses came in Indonesia, last year, and then again, in the recent Denmark Open, where Gade was not at his best. Needless to say that this third meeting in a big event will be important for Gade, who had never been beaten by a Dane in any International competition for over 10 years before that.
“Peter doesn’t like to lose. And I’m sure he’s looking forward to playing this match as much as I am,” said Jorgensen after his first round success in Hong Kong. “But of course, he probably sees it as a good thing for Denmark and for him as well that I am able to challenge him. It’s good for me; it’s good for him as it shows that we have good sparring back home.
“This is also why Denmark has got such a strong tradition in men’s singles : we have been on top because Danes have always have had quality sparring for each other.”
Jorgensen couldn’t be more right as he proved Wednesday that he was certainly stronger than the best Englishman, Andrew Smith. Even if Smith showed some good strokes, he was never in the lead while Jorgensen was playing his favourite counter attacking game.
“He was coming at me and I just love this type of game. On top of that, I played with the wind – I really don’t mind, it’s a lot of fun to play with the conditions – so I felt quite confident and the match went as well as it could possibly go. And a good way for me to start this event which I’ve never played in. I feel great here and of course, I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s match,” hinted the young Dane after his 21/12 – 21/11 success.
Gade didn’t spend much more time – 4 minutes more - to beat Singapore’s Derek Wong 21/11 and 21/16 and it was all over, even if the young Singaporean did manage to stay even with his opponent for most of the second game. Gade played fast and confident – he even gave back a serve after the Singaporean was called fault on a service.
The Dane agreed that he wasn’t ready and in spite of the umpire’s first decision, decided to give back the shuttle to his opponent – a rare happening in badminton.
If the two Danes made it to the second round, England’s trio was ousted, as Carl Baxter – who fought well against home favourite Chan Yan Kit – and Rajiv Ouseph were shown the exit as well as Smith.
Taufik Hidayat and Lee Chong Wei also enjoyed good victories. The Indonesian, who was launching here in Hong Kong his second personal collection with his sponsor – a more casual collection this time – took 30 minutes to beat Eric Pang. Just as long as Lee Chong Wei took to beat Ng Wei, 21/9 – 21/12.
Chong Wei will play Du Pengyu of China before a possible clash with Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam in the quarters. Taufik on his side will take on his compatriot Simon Santoso, who didn’t have to play thanks to the late withdrawal of Lee Tsuen Seng.
This could lead to a Gade-Taufik quarter final, unless Santoso and Jorgensen show their elder compatriots that it’s time for the new generation to meet at this stage.
After the withdrawal of Lin Dan, all eyes are now on Chen Jin and Bao Chunlai for China to shine as the local’s top players Ng Wei and Chan Yan Kit were already shown the exit. And both mainland Chinese shuttlers had a tough entrance in the tournament, both losing first games in a similar way in two adjacent courts.
For Bao Chunlai, it was just a set back, but for Chen Jin, it was more than that : at half time in the second game, the Chinese went to see the umpire and withdrew from the match citing injury, yielding to Hu Yun of Hong Kong.
Meant to meet Bao Chunlai in the next round, Chen Jin didn’t know it would take so much energy for his compatriot to beat Arvind Bhat of India. The latter, very efficient until he led 13/8 in the decider, then collapsed and started making mistakes while his tall opponent, cheered by the local fans, moved up a gear.
Bao was finally declared winner, scoring 13 out of the 16 next rallies and killing Bhat’s hopes for an upset. The final score:l 19/21 – 21/11 – 21/16 in Bao’s favour.
Posted by Lucas Liau
on 11:33 AM.
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