Hosts mixed it up to bag string of upsets in first round of Singapore Badminton Open

Story by Jan Lin. Photos by Lai Jun Wei/Red Sports and Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, June 16, 2010 — Singapore shuttlers tasted sweet success on the second day of the Singapore Badminton Open through an interesting variety of ‘rojak’ doubles combinations. They wreaked havoc in the first round of the mixed doubles and women’s doubles events by knocking out two seeded mixed doubles pairs and a women’s doubles pair.

Homegrown talent Vanessa Neo teamed up with Indonesia-born Hendri Kurniawan Saputra, who has been a permanent resident in Singapore since 2005, to start the ball rolling for the hosts. The relatively new partnership ranked 150th in the world trumped mixed doubles powerhouse Korea’s world number 15th pair of Yoo Yeon Seong / Kim Min Jung 21-3, 20-22, 21-14.

Vanessa / Hendri’s victory proved to be infectious as Thai Chayut Triyachart and China-born Yao Lei demolished the 8th-seeded pair of Nathan Robertson / Jenny Wallwork of England in 3 games of 19-21, 21-13, 21-13.

“We just never gave up,” said Chayut, who had received his Singapore permanent residency status just this year. “We allowed them to lead too much in the first game so it was quite hard to catch up. But my coach told us that our style, which is more hard hitting, will trouble them as their style is more of placing the shots well.”

Chayut / Yao have just come off a commendable runners-up result at the 2010 India Grand Prix Gold Championships last Sunday, which served to be a timely confident-booster for the young duo. Yao Lei, who won the 2008 World Junior girls doubles title for Singapore, shared: “We were feeling confident throughout. I kept believing that it’s possible to win even after losing the first set. We kept communicating with each other.”

Yao Lei was in fact a double-finalist in India last weekend and had struck gold in the women’s doubles event with Hendri’s younger sister, Shinta Mulia Sari. Cruising on their winning streak, Yao / Shinta knock out the 8th-seeded women’s doubles pair of Laura Choinet / Weny Rasidi of France in straight sets scores of 21-17, 21-10.

Singapore then bag its hat-trick of mixed doubles win when Danny Bawa Chrisnanta formed a lethal partnership with Liu Fan to topple the 7th-seeded Koreans Shin Baek Cheol / Lee Hyo Jung. Like Chayut / Yao Lei, Danny / Liu Fan were edged out 19-21 in the first game before sealing the victory with two games of 21-15.

While Liu Fan arrived in Singapore in 1997 and became a Singapore citizen in 2003 while Danny arrived 10 years later in 2007 and is currently waiting for his Singapore permanent residency.

“We were a bit confused in the first game. However, we knew that we still had hope as we lost in a very tight game,” shared Danny. “From the second game onwards, we were able to get into our game and play rallies with them. After we won the second game, we gained a lot of confidence and thus were able to win the match in the end. As much as possible we tried to attack Hyo Jung, and when Baek Cheol is off his guard, I will direct the shuttle to him.”

Singapore’s team manager Chew Keet Hou attributed Singapore’s success at the 2010 Singapore Badminton Open so far to the doubles pairs’ recent successes that have elevated the locals’ confidence playing on the global stage. Besides last weekend’s success in India, Hendri / Vanessa also found success two months ago at the Ciputra Hanoi Vietnam International Challenge 2010 where they scooped the mixed doubles gold.

Keet Hou revealed: “I believe that the players accumulative good performances this year have built up their confidence and that would explain their performance in this event so far. Much thought was also put into assembling the doubles pairings, the coaching team put together the pairings according to how each individual complements with another.”

Danny then teamed up with Chayut to provide more cheers for the home crowd with a 21-18, 21-14 victory over Japan’s Naoki Kawamae / Shoji Sato to ensure that the hosts will be represented in all three doubles events on the third day of the 2010 Singapore Badminton Open. The republic’s competition in the two singles events have concluded with Ashton Chen, Robin Gonansa, Gu Juan and Xing Aiying falling to their higher ranked opponents in the first round.

For more photos, go to the next page.