Story by Jan Lin/Red Sports. Photos by Jolyn Ang/Red Sports.
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Friday, 13 June, 2008 – Singapore’s 18-year-old Xing Aiying wowed the home crowd when she pulled off a victory against 7th seed Tracey Hallam of England and was the only Singaporean to march into the quarter-finals of the 2008 Singapore Badminton Open.
It was a victory that brought plenty of smiles to the hosts. The Singapore camp would have been annihilated if the world number 37 Xing Aiying had not overcome world number 15 Tracey Hallam in their second round tussle yesterday evening.
Singapore had lost a pair of mixed doubles (Chayut Triyachart/Shinta Mulia Sari), a pair of women’s doubles (Mok Jing Qiong/Samantha Neo Shi Yan), two pairs of men’s doubles (Riky Widianto/Jeffrey Wong and Muhd Azlin Bin Latib/Terry Yeo) and women’s singles player Gu Juan in the afternoon session.
When Aiying took centre stage in the evening session, it was evident that the Singaporean had studied her opponent well. Employing a series of long rallies and forcing her opponent into awkward positions, Aiying had complete control of her match against 33-year-old Tracey Hallam.
Aiying succeeded in frustrating the 2006 Commonwealth Games women’s singles champion when she consistently attacked Tracey’s backhand corner, as her English counterpart tended to be slower in recovering from a backhand shot.
Aiying revealed her game strategy after the match, saying, "I tried to play long rallies with Tracy. She was not very comfortable with long rallies since her stamina is no longer as good as before. I knew that Tracey had good attacks, and she tried to maximize those while she still had energy. I tried not to play along with her tactics and forced her into long rallies instead."
The young Singaporean will take on world number 6 Tine Rasmussen of Denmark in the quarterfinals this evening. She revealed, "I think Tine is a very tough opponent. I lost to her very badly a few years ago. She always puts pressure on her opponent by her aggressive style of play. But the wind is very strong in this arena, so she might hold back her attacks.
"I must say that the support from the home crowd definitely lifted me up today. I was energised by the crowd’s energy. I’m not pressured by the fact that I'm the only Singaporean left in the tournament. I hope the home crowd’s support will lift me up the same way in the quarter-finals against Tine.”
The face-off between Aiying and Tine Rasmussen will start at 7pm today at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
More pictures in the gallery.
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