Heavyweights Flex Muscle as Seeds Imperious at Skycity

Heavyweights Flex Muscle as Seeds Imperious at Skycity Badminton Open

The tournament heavyweights flexed their muscle on day two of the SKYCITY NZ Badminton Open at the North Shore Events Centre, with Korea and China leading a procession of seeds safely into the second round of the tournament, with just three seeded players or combinations ousted from the event.

On the women’s side of the Grand Prix, top seed Sung Ji Hyun (Korea) was ruthless against a determined but outclassed Sally Fu (New Zealand), the world number five winning 21-6, 21-7.

“It is my first time here to play and to begin I was nervous but that will help, I have confidence now for the tournament. Being top seed brings a little pressure but it is okay. For me I must improve through the tournament, most of all I must improve my power and speed and my durability – I must stay fit for the week. My big goal this year is the Rio Olympic Games, I really want to get good results there, but for now I am really enjoying both the tournament and being here in New Zealand.”

Her male counterpart Son Wan Hu was pushed a little harder, the men’s singles top seed and Rio Olympics bound player winning 21-14, 21-17 against Daren Liew (Malaysia), a player he has played many times before.

“I have had many matches against Daren so it took some time to try and gain an advantage against him, but once I got into the match it was fine. In the beginning Daren made some mistakes and was easier to play, but in the second he was relaxed and at his best so it was more difficult. I now look to get used to the stadium and will try to be more attacking in my next game,” said Son.

The Barfoot & Thompson Match of the Day lived up to its billing, with second seeds Ko Sung Hyun and Shin Baek Cheol (Korea) outlasting Han Chengkai and Zhou Haodong (China) in a thrilling men’s doubles clash, taking the match 21-19, 18-21, 21-17. The ninth best partnership in the world and 2014 World Champions were pushed all the way by the young Chinese combination, with the good day two crowd totally engaged in every rally.

India has sent a strong team to New Zealand and their progress was good today. Manu Attri and Ashwini Ponnappa are a relatively new combination, in just their second tournament together as they aim long term towards the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast of Australia. It was perhaps the new nature of their partnership that saw them win a topsy-turvy first round match against Middleton and Choo (Australia) 21-13, 10-21, 21-12.

“I thought it was okay not all that great but we played well in patches and I am glad that we won,” said Ponnappa.

“The second set we got really relaxed and made so many unforced errors but the third game we started well and took an 11-6 lead, that was a really good advantage to take out the set and the match,” explained Attri.

Ponnappa hinted that concentration and focus might be an area they will work on as the partnership develops, agreeing that you can never drop your focus for a moment.

“That is always the case, you can never relax irrespective of who you are playing, you have to be on your guard and make sure you play consistent and I don’t think we were consistent enough today, I ended up making a lot of service mistakes which is a little bad but having said that in crucial moments we played really well and Manu got some really good drives in and played well, making things easier for me.”

New Zealanders Oliver Leydon-Davis and Nicco Tagle found themselves up against a world class pairing in men’s doubles top seeds Kim Gi Jung and Kim Sa Rang (Korea), with the world number six ranked combination winning 21-6, 21-10.

“That was tough, we prepared pretty well and had a good plan especially in the first three shots to get out of the serve situation but to be honest it was pretty difficult to execute that and I think that is a fair reflection of their level compared to where we are,” said Leydon-Davis.

19 year old Tagle is relatively new to this level of the game but is left thirsty for more, despite the loss.

“My coach has given me a few pointers on the areas of my game that need improving. This match made some of that obvious, it is not often you play at home and find yourself so far behind the other three players on court, it is not something that comes along every day. Being able to play at the SKYCITY Open against this level of player is great, it just makes me want it more, seeing the players at this level, different styles, it is a great opportunity.”

It was generally a difficult day as expected for the New Zealanders as they came up against higher ranked and in many cases world top 20 players, with the sole winners wearing silver ferns being Abhinav Minota and Dylan Soedjasa, who progress to the second round of the men’s doubles with a win over Anthony Joe and Pit Seng Low (Australia).

Day three begins at 10am at the North Shore Events Centre, with second round matches promising more thrilling badminton and even closer matches as the pretenders are sorted from the contenders.

ENDS

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