Mixed fortunes for Singapore’s shuttlers in second round of Singapore Badminton Open

Story by Delle Chan/REDintern. Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Thursday, June 17, 2010 — It proved to be a day of mixed fortunes for Singapore in the second round of the Singapore Badminton Open. The Republic’s men’s doubles pair and women’s doubles pair made it to the quarter finals but the three mixed doubles pairs regrettably bowed out of the tournament.

In the first mixed doubles match, Singapore’s combination of Danny Bawa Chrisnanta / Fan Liu lost out 21-12, 21-18 to the Danish pair of Rasmus Bonde / Christinna Pedersen.

In the same vein, Vanessa Neo’s partnership with Hendri Kurniawan Saputra also failed to reap the desired results, as the pair succumbed to a 21-16, 21-17 defeat by Indonesia’s Hendra Aprida Gunawan / Vita Marissa.

The match between Singapore’s Chayut Triyachart / Yao Lei and England’s Robert Blair / Gabrielle White proved to be a much tighter affair. The Singaporean pair managed to bag the first set with a score of 21-16. However, their resistance eventually crumbled as they went on to concede the next two sets 16-21, 9-21 to their English counterparts.

Fortunately, Singapore’s medal hopes were preserved when Danny Bawa Chrisnanta / Chayut Triyachart chalked up a 21-16, 21-17 victory over their Korean opponents, Gun Woo Cho / Yi Goo Won in their men’s doubles match.

Both sets of the match started out in quite the same fashion, with the Singapore shuttlers drawing first blood and the Koreans consequently piling on the pressure. However, the latter’s utmost efforts were not enough to derail the Singaporean pair, who eventually cruised to a well-deserved victory.

When questioned about their performance today, Chayut said: “We both played well … this is probably our best performance as a pair so far. The win was unexpected as our opponents beat the top seed [yesterday]. As underdogs, we had less pressure.”

As for their targets for the competition, Chayut humbly declared that they “will just try [their] best”.

Singapore’s female shuttlers, Shinta Mulia Sari and Yao Lei, also tasted sweet success in a closely contested women’s doubles match with Line Damkjaer Kruse / Mie Schjott-Kristensen of Denmark. They eventually managed to outplay their opponents 21-19, 21-17, but not without stiff resistance from the Danish duo.

Both sides were neck-and-neck for most of the match, and the Singaporean pair only managed to pull away at the end of each set to seal their place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.

“We took [the match] step by step and played our own game. We were definitely more aggressive today,” Yao Lei commented after the match. “We hope to make it [at least] to the semi-finals of the tournament.”

The quarter-finals of the Singapore Badminton Open will take place at the Singapore Indoor Stadium tomorrow from 3pm onwards.