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.
China defended their Sudirman Cup title by defeating Indonesia 3-0 in the finals. As predicted the Chinese women were far too strong for the Indonesians, and the mens doubles and mixed doubles were unable to come through for Indonesia. The tie started off with the mixed doubles, which was by far the closest of the three matches. Gao Ling and Zheng Bo defeated Flandy Limpele and Vita Marissa 19-21, 21-17, 21-19 in the match that all but eliminated Indonesia’s hopes. Next in the mens doubles Cai Yun and Fu Haifeng defeated Candra Wijaya and Markis Kido 21-11, 21-13. Finally Zhang Ning sealed the victory by defeating Firdasari Adriyanti 21-16, 21-9.
Full Sudirman Cup 2007 Results
China defeated Korea 3-0 today to earn their place in the Sudirman Cup Final. China has only lost one match this entire tournament when Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei defeated Lin Dan. Today Lin defeated Korea’s Shon Seung Mo, while Zhang Ning defeated Hwang Hye Youn, and Gao Ling and Zheng Bo defeated Han Sang Hoon and Lee Hyo Jung. In the final China will face Indonesia who narrowly defeated surprise semi-finalists England 3-2. For Indonesia to have any chance of winning tomorrow Taufik Hidayat must defeat Lin Dan, and whichever mens doubles pair they field must defeat Cai and Fu. Then it will come down to the mixed doubles which Indonesia could conceivably win, but there is almost no hope of Indonesia taking either of the womens events as China is just too strong.
Full Results
Group B of the Sudirman Cup proved to be incredibly close, but unfortunately for Europe’s strongest badminton nation, they will not move onto the Sudirman Cup finals after matches won are used to break the three way tie. Korea, Indonesia and Denmark each won two of their ties, but Denmark came third as Indonesia won 9 matches, Korea won 8 and Denmark only won 7. Had Denmark won all 5 of their matches against Hong Kong (as they probably should have) they would have gone on to the finals. Instead it will be Indonesia and Korea facing off against England and China respectively. China only lose one match in the preliminary rounds when Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei defeated Lin Dan 21-17, 21-17. A good sign for Lee Chong Wei with the World Championships coming up soon in Malaysia, but still not good enough for Malaysia.
Full Sudirman Cup 2007 Results
Peter Gade’s loss to Taufik Hidayat will provide incentive for a better World Championships
The big story so far for the Sudirman Cup was the surprise loss of Malaysia to England by a score of 3-2. Malaysia won both of the singles events with Lee Chong Wei and Wong Mew Choo beating Andrew South and Tracey Hallam respectively, but England took all three of the doubles events. The biggest surprise was the upset of Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong by Anthony Clark and Robert Blair. Blair and Clark beat the Malaysians 21-18, 16-21, 21-16 to notch up what could be another one of their biggest wins together. The player of the night would have to be Gail Emms who earned two wins for her team, the mixed doubles and the womens doubles. Emms partnered up with Donna Kellogg to win the final match of the tie in a three game thriller 20-22, 21-18, 23-21. In the other tie from Group A China easily defeated Thailand 5-0.
In group B both Denmark and Korea managed to defeat their opponents Hong Kong and Indonesia respectively. Denmark won the mens singles, womens singles and mixed doubles but their top doubles pair Eriksen and Lundgaard Hansen failed to deliver for their team when they lost to Njoto and Wiratama. Korea defeated Indonesia largely because Indonesia’s top mixed doubles pair Widianto and Natsir losing to Lee and Han.
Sudirman Cup 2007 Results
The groups for the 2007 Sudirman Cup have been released and once again it looks like China will be the victors this year. Team China are seeded first with Team Denmark seeded second. Assuming the format of 5 matches (one per event), the only countries which I would say have a real chance are China, Denmark, and Indonesia. None of the other teams in group one have a legitimate chance to win three matches. Denmark has the potential to win men’s singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles. Indonesia can win men’s singles, men’s doubles, and maybe mixed doubles (maybe). China can of course win all five events, and potentially with any of their teams (even back ups in most events). If Korea’s Lee Hyun Il was still playing regularly (he retired didn’t he???) they might be able to pull it off, but it’s unlikely.
In the majority of the lower groups it’s quite difficult to predict who will move up, but one thing I noticed was that India is in the third group, and I’d be surprised if they can’t move up. I think they are a really underrated country in terms of badminton results.
Team Canada has won the Gold despite missing their star player Mike Beres. Beres who is a triple threat (triple crown at Canadian Nationals this year, first time in decades apparently), flew back home to Brantford, Ontario (home of Wayne Gretzky) late last night to get married. However, the rest of the team was able to defeat the Americans 3-1. It would likely have been 3-2 had they played out the last match since the men’s doubles would have been missing Mike Beres. So my predictions were not far off really. The wins here that Canada got will give our players a great boost in their bid to qualify for the upcoming Olympics in Beijing next summer. The points earned here are huge, so Stefan, Anna as well as Mike and Will, should all get a good head start for the qualifying period.
The individual events have finished and Canada has asserted itself as the dominant Pan Am nation so far with 4/5 individual titles, and was the only country with finalists in every event. The individual event finals were as follows:
Stefan Wojcikiewicz def Andrew Dabeka 21-17, 22-20
Anna Rice def Claudia Rivero 21-16, 21-11
Mike Beres and Will Milroy def Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong 21-13, 21-19
Charmaine Reid and Fiona McKee def Eva Lee 22-20, 17-21, 21-18
Howard Bach and Eva Lee def Mike Beres and Val Loker 21-18, 21-17
The team event is also underway but really it�s all about Canada and USA. Canada came out on top in the individual event tally, but that could change for the team event. Men�s singles is more than likely going to be Canada, as is the women�s singles. The real questions lie in the doubles events. Canada narrowly took the women�s doubles, so that could certainly go to the Americans. Howard Bach and Bob Malaythong could also turn the tables on Mike Beres and Will Milroy, although the Canadians were convincing in the individual event. Finally the mixed doubles could also go either way. So it could either be a 5-0 Canada win, or 3-2 for USA if they win all three doubles events. My prediction is in the middle, 4-1 for Canada… But wait, Mike Beres has left to get married!! Canada has lost it’s VIP for the team event, so Canada is almost certainly in danger or losing the men’s doubles event. This makes things much more interesting. Still, I predict Canada 3-2.
