Wow, now that is a big upset. Ireland’s Scott Evans defeated Japan’s Shoji Sato 21-15, 21-14 at the US Open. I saw Shoji Sato beat Taufik Hidayat when I was in Tokyo for the Thomas Cup last year. This guy is no joker, he is a legitimate top 20 player, and Scott Evans is not somebody I would expect to beat him. Unfortunately for Scott he lost the very next round to Canada’s Andrew Dabeka in a very close three games 21-14, 10-21, 24-22! Scott is Ireland’s best player, maybe their best ever (according to Bobby Milroy he is). This will really help Andrew’s Olympic qualifying run. Not sure how big the US Open is in terms of points, but it can’t hurt to make the semis, even Malaysia’s Sairul couldn’t muster the testosterone to get this far (perhaps he is lacking some after going off of the juice, just speculating).
The American’s top doubles pair of Bach and Malaythong had the benefit of a good draw and top seed getting upset which has helped them to make it to the semis while Canada’s Milroy and Beres have been knocked out in the quarter finals. Also, Bach and Malaythong have the benefit of playing their teammates Gunawan and Rai who no doubt will tank the match to help their teammates. A similar situation in the mixed as well with Beres and Loker losing while Bach and Lee will be playing Gunawan and his partner in the semis. Hopefully Canadian Open will be better for our Canadian pairs.
If you are interested I have tracked down Scott Evans official website. He is an interesting character, with a serious temper on court. Also, my dad apparently played badminton with his dad back in the day in Ireland.
We are proud to announce that we have begun pre-production on an introductory badminton instructional DVD for Yonex Canada. Right now we aren’t releasing many details on the project except that we are shooting in HD, so the quality will be exceptionally better than a lot of the stuff we have produced in the past. We hope to begin filming sometime within the next 4-6 weeks. Stay tuned for more details regarding this exciting new project over the next few weeks.
Anup Sridhar defeated Malaysia’s second ranked player, Hafiz Hashim, in another three game marathon. The young Indian won the match 21-19, 18-21, 21-15 to book himself a ticket to the quarter-finals where he will have to play the tournament’s heavy favourite, Lin Dan. While Taufik was a big win, it is not altogether surprising that Taufik would be capable of a loss like this. However, Lin Dan is far more consistent in his performances than Taufik, and it is far less likely that Anup will beat him. It would certainly be a very exciting outcome to see, and would be a great boost to Anup’s career and confidence. Perhaps Anup can be the first Indian badminton player to win the World Championships?? Umm no, not very likely.
The other big surprise of the day was the loss of second seed Lee Chong Wei to Sony Dwi Kuncoro. Lee was clearly performing poorly as Sony easily defeated him 21-11, 21-9. Sony will now play Denmark’s hero Peter Gade who defeated Indonesia’s Simon Santoso. Denmark also has Kenneth Jonassen left. He will be playing Bao Chunlai in the quarter-finals. Finally China’s Chen Yu will be playing against Ronald Susilo in the quarter-finals as well.
Here is an interview from TrashTalk with the giant killer himself, Anup Sridhar.
Today India’s Anup Sridhar has proved to the badminton community that he is a legitimate threat to any player. The young men’s singles player defeated Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat in three thriller games to book himself a place in the 3rd round against Malaysia’s Hafiz Hashim. After winning the first game 21-14 Anup wasn’t able to close out the match in the second game with Taufik winning in a very close 24-26 scoreline. The third game once again went to extra points as Anup came out on top 22-20 to earn himself the biggest victory of his career. This was the only real surprise of the day in men’s singles as only one other seed lost when Shoji Sato lost to Lee Hyun Il, which isn’t exactly a big surprise.
I have discovered that Anup Sridhar has his own blog, but it doesn’t look as though he has written on it for quite some time now. Perhaps if we leave him some comments he will pick up the writing again : )
Stay tuned for more updates on the World Championships in Malaysia
Full Results
First of all I’d like to apologize for the delay in posting, we have been very busy putting together some new projects which you might hear a little bit about sometime soon, so stay tuned for that.
Now, the BWF have release the draws for the upcoming World Championships running from August 13-19. This is an extremely important tournament for a lot of players with the 2008 Beijing Olympic qualifying period now in effect. The points that can be earned from this event will go a long way to helping players either qualify, or get a seeding. As usual Lin Dan is the first seed in the men’s singles, and it is of course important for the marquee players like him to perform well, but it is almost more important for the lower ranked players because of the Olympics.
