Taufik in last 16
http://www.gzba.org   2006-10-21 16:17:56
From:www.internatioanlbadminton.org　

PICC China Open 2006
Taufik in last 16
19 October 2006
Report by Raphael Sachetat, photos by Freeman Chan, Badmintonphoto.com

　 After his recently controversial third game in the final of the Japan Open held last week – Taudik Hidayat is back on court in Guangzhou.

Ng Wei must be feeling a bit unlucky with the draws. It is the third time that he has had to play Taufik Hidayat in early rounds of a big event; This time was no exception as he was set to play lesser ranked Hidayat as soon as the second round. 　 As the Indonesian had never lost to the Hong Kong player, he made sure things would go his way once again. And he beat the 9/16th seed 21/16 – 21/17. He will meet Boonsak Ponsana in the next round as the latter beat Li Yu of China in straight games. But the boss Lin Dan will be eyeing a home title after his straight wins in the first days, facing a younger compatriot in the third stage, Lu Qi Cheung who beat Simon Santoso in the first round.

　 There were other casualties in the first round, when Agus Haryanto, who spends most of his time coaching now beat Denmark's new star Joachim Persson and Thailand's Poompat beat Yeoh Kay Bin of Malaysia in three games as well.

　 In the second round, Eric Pang of the Netherlands, 5/8th seed, fell to an unknown Hong Kong player Hung Yuk Wong. The new generation of shuttlers will meet when Kuan Beng Hong meets with Chen Jin, with a possible match with either Taufik or Boonsak in the quarter finals.

　 In the women's second round, there will be only stars fighting one against each other in this very high level draw. One of the first round clashes involved Tine Rasmussen against Xie Xingfang and the match ending in a straight-game victory to the mighty Chinese, who plays in front of her home crowd. Xie will play against her compatriot Wang Yihan who just won the University World Championships in Wuhan the previous week-end.

The first round clash between Lu Lan and Kanako Yonekura saw the Chinese win 21/17 – 21/17 while the all-European fight between Hughes and Meulendijks saw the latter win, and possibly looking for revenge against Zhang Ning in the next round. The top seed, winner in Japan, was wearing her lucky new purple outfit and outplayed Yu Hiramaya of Japan 21/17 – 21/14 　 After failing to match Gunawan and Wijaya's superpowers, China's best shuttlers Cai and Fu are set to show their worth in front of their public. Their first match against Lo/Leung of Hong Kong was a piece of cake (21/11 – 21/11) and they now take on singles duo of Sato and Koichi who have enjoyed a win in a disciplin they don't usually play.

　 The big clash however, is expected later on in the semi final against either Lee/Choong of Malaysia or Alven/Luluk of Indonesia, who both secured their ticket to the second round, both dropping a game en route. The Malaysian were troubled by Kiwis Shirley and Gordon, while the Indonesians lost a game to Denmark's new pair of Mollyus and Andersen.

　 The match of the day in Guangzhou was Chan and Koo of Malaysia against Thailand's Prapakamol and Ngernsrisuk. Chan had been out of high level competition ever since his early departure in Madrid due to his father passing away while his younger partner had been pairing with Tan for an unexpected silver medal in Japan. The Malaysians ended up winning this match 21/17 – 18/21 – 23/21. Gan and Abdul Latif came through their tricky first round against locals Zheng/Guo.

　 Joanne Nicholas and Nathalie Munt were the players who spend more time on court against Japan's Matsuda and Akao in a match which went overtime in the women's double event. The English took the first game after saving few game points 26/24 but the Japanese made it up in the next two, winning 21/19 – 21/18 and will be hoping for the same success over Chinese Taipei Cheng and Chien in the second round. All top Chinese pairs fared easily and will be ever more difficult to beat in their home event.

　 The biggest upset of the mixed double draw was the loss of Denmark's Laybourn and Juhl, who seem to be having a stroke of bad luck with back to back losses in spite of their seeded position. The Danes fell to Zhang Wei and Tian Qin of China 18/21 – 23/21 – 21/19, while Singapore Wijaya/Jiang lost to He and Yu. The Chinese secured no less than six spots in the last sixteen.