Yonex Japan Open Roundup Day 4

Men's Singles
Perrson playing againts Taufik Perrson(DEN) won 2-1 against Hidayat(INA). Persson lost 1st game easily, but 2nd and 3rd game, he used his big and sharp smash resulting his going to semifinal 12-21, 21-19 & 23-21. Results show that it was a close match however again, Taufik needs to improve more on his fitness levels in order to start winning competitions.

Lee Chong Wei however pulled off a close game by winning his match againts the qualifier Yanbo Qi (Chi) 21-17 & 21-17. Chong Wei has been made to push himself at every game in this tournament and it would be interesting to see if he can continue his winning streak as World No. 1.

Sony Dwi (Ind) pulled an easy win over Malaysia's Veteran Roslin Hashim in the other quater finals match, 21-16 & 21-11. I remember Roslin as a player who played againts my senior players during his Secondary School Days and what amazes me is that he is still playing in the international arena.

Women's Singles
Lu Lan returning a shot againts Maria
Lan Lu(CHN) won the very tough match 2-1 against M.K.Yulianti(INA).She said it was very hard espesically losing 1st game. 2nd game onward she tried to concentrate to get points one by one. Because she lost the match for Bronze medal against this strong rival Yulianti, she was very eager to win 13-21, 22-20 & 22-20.

To me Maria Yulianti is the most promising player of 2008. She continues to grow and mature in every match and I think by next year, she'll be a force to recon with. M.Zhou(HKG),winner of 2002 YOJ beat overwhelmingly H.Y.Hwang as expected.

Mens Doubles
Yonatan Suryatama Dasuki, Rian Sukmawan (ind) pulled off an upset by beating 2008 Olympic Champions Markis Kido and Hendrawan (Ind) 21-17, 14-21 & 21-19.

Two Japanese pairs will be joining Yonata and Rian in the Semis, Shintaro Ikeda [6], Shuichi Sakamoto defeated Muhammad Ahsan, Bona Septano (Ind) while Keita Masuda [4], Tadashi Ohtsuka defeated Tony and Candra (Ind). I think its going to be a very exciting doubles Semi's and my bets are on Lars Paaske, Jonas Rasmussen the second seeds who defeated Chris Adcock, Robert Blair 21-15 21-18 to win the title.

Mixed Doubles
Widianto/Natsir(INA) performed fine conbination all through the match and beat Limpele/Polii(INA). Widianto's strong smash and Natsir's attack at top court were remarkable.

Yonex Japan Open Day 1

News from the Yonex Badminton Open... So far the seeded players did fairly well.. In the Malaysian News today, Misbun has said he has high expectations of Mew Choo to beat Lu Lan as he has been putting her thru some aggressive attacking drill during training. It would be interesting to see how she fairs based on these expectations. However I think one of the main thing which Misbun should do is to strengthen her mentally.


Besides getting the news, somehow am trying to get some videos to view however again, its sad not to find them in YouTube. I really hope that a badminton fan who has found a video link to the Japan Open would send me a post :)


Men's Singles


Both promising players, T.Hidayat(INA) and C.W.Lee(MAS) won the match overwhelmingly in total. Lee experienced rather tough first game due to both of his slow starting and opponents' good performance.


S.Sato(JPN) lost the match against J.Persson(DEN) and failed to make his first win at this tournament. Sato agonized of Persson's sharp smash and drop shot.


Peter Gade(DEN) lost 1-2 against W.Gong(CHN). He said,"Though I played well,opponent played better". This time Denmark team had no supporting team and it was a little handicap for him.


K.Tago(JPN) rather beat easily strong Chen Yu(CHN).He felt Chen was a little lack of concentration, while he himself could keep speed and hight. He also well prepared for Chen's round the head shot to win the rally.


Women's Singles


Tine came back to YOJ as defending champion in the Women’s Singles.She was seeded second in this tournament and played the first round today.She was against Ai Goto of Japan, whom Tine did not know well, however she knew Goto was a good player with strong track record among Japanese players..She said after the match, “I could concentrate on the court focusing in getting one point by one point. I felt a lot of pressure when entering the court, however I told to myself that if you do whatever I have trained, the result will be there. I also went through a mental training as well and this helped a lot to win the game.Denmark does not give a priority to this tournament and this is why this time she was not accompanied with her coach, however she was very happy to coma back here again as a defending champion and looks very much for ward to repeating the same this year at YOJ 2008.


E.Hirose (JPN) joyfully won the big match against No3.ranked.Zhu Lin (CHN) 21-10 14-21 21-17.She played persistently and made this very good performance.She said : She performed exercise for Beijing Olympic, which made her have confidence in herself.Second game was rather hard, but at final game, Zhu Lin made several mistakes resulting Hirose's win.
She is very glad to have won this tournament after certain long term, and wishes to play consistently game by game to perform good result, tomorrow onward. Also she is very grateful for warm cheering by audience.


Zhu Lin(CHN);After Beijing Olympic, she did not have enough time for exercise, so felt a little hard physically. She regret not to have been able to keep temper on the judgment to her shot which she believed safe.


Mixed Doubles
Masda & Maeda(JPN) beat Adcock & Olver 2-0. Both pairs were nervous a little under tension and made rather many mis-shots. Masda said that his service was too bad, while Maeda made it very well and contributed their win.