Seventh heaven for Singapore shuttlers on opening day of Singapore Open

By Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Tuesday, June 15, 2010 — Local players made their presence felt on the qualifying day of the 2010 Singapore Badminton Open with two men’s singles players, two women’s single players, two men’s doubles pairs, and a mixed doubles pair making it to the main draw.

It looked like it would be a disappointing day for the locals with the mixed doubles pairs falling in the opening matches of the tournament.

Out of the seven Singaporean mixed doubles pairs, only the pair of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Liu Fan successfully qualified for the main draw. All the other Singaporean pairs fell in straights sets to their opponents.

They had to come from a set down to upset the pair of Lin Yu Lang and Cheng Shao Chieh, the fourth qualifying seed from Chinese Taipei, 17-21, 27-25, 21-18 in the first qualifying round.

In the second qualifying match, they faced the Japanese pair of Kenichi Hayakawa and Ayaka Takahashi, who had knocked another Singaporean pair out in the previous round. Danny Bawa Chrisnanta and Liu Fan eventually overcame their opponents 21-16, 21-16.

Although they took the first set comfortably, the local duo found themselves trailing at the interval of the second set at 9-11. However, with a couple of well-placed smashes, they levelled the match at 12-12 before storming ahead to take the set 21-16.

“We are a new pairing so we are quite happy to go through to the main draw,” said Chrisnanta. “There are quite a few new pairs from Singapore this year and we are the only to make it through to the main draw. We are a bit confused and rush at times so we’ll have to improve on this. We also need to be more patient when we play teams in the main draw.”

Liu Fan, his partner, added, “We need to focus more and we’ll definitely try our best to achieve better results in the next round.”

In the men’s singles, Singaporeans Robin Gonansa and Ashton Chen did the host nation proud when they won their qualification matches to reach the main draw for the first time in their young careers.

Robin Gonansa had a walkover in his opening match, with Kevin Cordon pulling out of the tournament. He then survived a comeback from Malaysian Beryno Wong in his second qualification match to win in three sets, 21-11, 15-21, 21-19.

“I think in the first set, he wasn’t really ready and it might have also been his strategy to choose to play with the draft,” said Robin Gonansa of his Malaysian opponent. “He might have wanted to take it easy in the first set then try to take the second. In the second, when I was leading 14-10, I tried to follow his pace but it was too fast and I couldn’t keep up. I was a bit nervous in the third when leading 17-12 and I made too many mistakes and let him catch up, but I managed to seal the match.”

“Overall I am very happy to have made it to the main draw – this is my first time! My next match is against Hu Yun of Hong Kong and I’ll just take it one match at a time,” added Robin.

For homegrown talent Ashton Chen, he started his 2010 Singapore Badminton Open campaign with a close three-set victory over his compatriot and doubles partner Derek Wong. Both players played their hearts out but it was Aston who managed to edge his fellow countryman 21-17, 20-22, 21-19.

In his second qualifying match, he had to fight back from a set down to defeat India’s Anup Sridhar 22-24, 21-13, 21-16.

Sridhar bagged the tight first set despite the Singaporean saving a couple of game points, but Ashton came out fighting in the second set, sprinting to a 6-1 lead before taking it 21-13. In the rubber set, he stormed to a 6-1 lead again. Though he allowed his opponent back into the game to hold a slim 1-point lead at 15-14, he raised his game at that very juncture and scored four straight points and eventually took the set 21-16 to claim his spot in the main draw.

“I am feeling quite happy right now!” said Ashton. “I knew I did my best in the first set although I lost it, so I just told myself to fight back. In the second set, I could see he looked a bit tired so I wanted to capitalise on that. I tried to make him move more and I think I did a pretty good job.”

“At 15-14 in the third, I was a bit nervous, but I told myself to keep my head in it. I told myself to play a point at a time and just extend the game as much as possible. Now that I am in the main draw I don’t think there’s any expectations on me, I’ll just take it a game at a time,” added the 21-year-old.

Ashton is also featured in the men’s doubles main draw. He teamed up with Derek Wong to overcome their fellow Singaporeans Kelvin Ho and Eugene Sng 21-9, 21-17 in the first qualifying match before dumping Vietnam’s Quang Tuan Bui and Ngoc Manh Nguyen out of the tournament 21-16 23-25 21-12 in the last match of the day.

The pair of Terry Yeo and Liu Yi is Singapore’s other successful men’s doubles qualifier. They beat Liao Min Chun and Wu Chun Wei from Chinese Taipei 21-19, 23-21 before overcoming compatriots Johnathan Tang and Jeffrey Wong 21-7, 21-12.

In the women’s singles, Singapore’s Chen Jiayuan and Gu Juan both qualified for the main draw. Chen Jiayuan defeated Chinese Taipei’s Chen Hsiao Huan 21-16, 21-15 before knocking out America’s Iris Wang 21-9, 21-7.

Gu Juan had a tougher time as she needed three sets to beat her opponents, who were both from Chinese Taipei. She edged out Hsu Ya Ching 21-16, 20-22, 23-21 before securing her spot in the main draw with a 23-21, 16-21, 21-19 win over Hung Shih Han.

The second day of the 2010 Singapore Badminton Open will begin at 9am.

For more photos, go to the next page.