TUC 2010 Day 2 – A Fair Dinkum Day, Finally

Finally after the whitewashes and no-show on the opening day of the 2010 Thomas and Uber Cup Finals, Oceania Uber Cup champions Australia made the bi-annual event ‘real’ for the spectators as they stretched European champions Denmark to five matches before bowing out.

By EeLyn Ooi, live from Putra Stadium, Kuala Lumpur. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

As the Aussie lingo would say ‘Fair Dinkum’, the Australian ladies carried this spirit and entered the court with no pretense, giving all they had in them to take Denmark on a nerve-rattling ride this afternoon.

Denmark’s Uber Cup team, who had lost their top lady Tine Rasmussen even before the Cup finals began, were so close to losing their firm position in the group to the group’s dark horse.

Denmark’s Camilla Sorensen, 24 in July, who had taken Tine’s place as the first women’s singles player, gave the Danes a good start by showing her compatriots the team was still capable in Tine’s absence. She flanked Erica Pong in straight sets of 21-15, 21-6.

Unfortunately, the second Danish singles representative was not so fortunate. Karina Jorgensen lost touch of the momentum and bowed down to Renuga Veeran (pictured), who was a junior player in Malaysia eight years ago.

Veeran, who has continued her badminton career in Australia after leaving Malaysia to study abroad in 2003, clinched a 22-20 win in the first set. With that confidence booster, she hurried up to finish the game in her favour 21-13, giving the Australians a glimmer of hope as the tie was taken to a 1-all draw.

“I am very happy because I pulled the tie to a draw. I think we have a chance to win as our third singles player Huang Chia Chi is strong, so is her double’s partnership with Tang He Tian,” indicated the outspoken lady.

Indeed, Huang, who had a bad loss against Indonesia’s Maria Kristin Yulianti yesterday, stepped onto the court and lived up to her team-mate’s compliment. She sent Mette Poulsen off with a 21-11, 21-5 victory as smooth as summer cherries.

Sadly, happy moments for the Aussies ended just there and then as their singles heroine Veeran and Huang didn’t manage to maintain their good runs in their respective doubles, allowing Denmark to catch up from 1-2 down to steal a 3-2 happy ending.

However, the optimistic 23-year-old Renuga Veeran said, “The Danes have always been good and we’ve tried our best. I think I did pretty well in both my matches today.”

Meanwhile, the Malaysian was glad to be playing on the courts of the nation she was born in.

“I would like to thank the Malaysian media because since I’m here for the Uber Cup, I’ll be appearing quite often on the Malaysian papers,” Veeren shared with a big smile on her face.

Playing on court 4 at the same time, the Russian ladies secured a 4-1 victory over the Germans, losing only their first singles – where they were represented by Ella Diehl – to the fast and aggressive tall lady, Juliane Schenk. The Russians were seen training whole-heartedly even after the tie, in order to get into the best possible shape to triumph over the Japanese ladies tomorrow afternoon, which would send them through to the quarter-finals as group winners.

Badzine is reporting ‘live’ at the 2010 Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Kuala Lumpur! Check back for our daily news updates and follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

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