AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2012 Day 1 – New Stars Please Apply

Several fresh faces grabbed their first round interview opportunities for the position of Australian Open Champion with vigour.

By Aaron Wong, Badzine Correspondent live in Sydney.  Photos: Andrew Greenway, Courtesy of Badminton Australia (live)

The Southern Cross constellation lit up the scoreboards on the first day of play as Australians took to the courts in droves to qualify for the main draw of their home event.

200 Looked More Like 20

The five-hour evening session was almost exclusively men’s singles competition and a handful of complete unknowns shone brightly too.  China’s Tian Houwei and Qiao Bin are both ranked around 200th in the world but the extra zero at the end could have been lopped off the way they were playing as they tailgated dangerously close to their seeded opponents Hu Yun of Hong Kong and Boonsak Ponsana (photo) of Thailand respectively.

Of having to play the 2009 World Junior Champion from China, the very experienced twelfth seed Ponsana readily admitted he knew what he was in for:  “I don’t know him, but China’s players are never easy because they train really hard and it was difficult for me to keep up”.

5 vs. 226

Taiwan’s Lin Yu Hsien, ranked 226, was giving a good account of himself though never troubling the 2010 World Champion, China’s Chen Jin, during the first game.  Chen was looking like he would start and finish at the same time as Simon Santoso, who was cruising towards a straight-game win but the young, stocky, and fit Taiwan player had other plans.

In the second game, Lin addressed all the returns of the number 1 seed with increased speed around the court and was rewarded with a small lead all the way from 2-2.

Chen regrouped his thoughts and game plan during the interval and exerted extra strength in his smashes to pull the shorter Lin out of position, and then made use of his height to follow up with delicious cross court half smashes which the crowds savoured.  Chen Jin won but was visibly bothered by needing to play the longest men’s singles match of the day at 55 minutes against an opponent ranked several hundred ranking spots below him.

Proceed to 2nd Interview Please

Korea’s Hong Ji Hoon (photo), world ranked 92, booked a second round interview with Israeli Misha Zilberman by scalping the 6th seed Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto.  Hong didn’t look like a man who had twice lost to Tommy Sugiarto as he played with so much intention of winning from the word go.  Head coach and badminton legend Kim Moon Soo was yelling approval not from the coach’s seat but the first row of the spectators stands.  Sugiarto knew his defeat was inexorable as reflected by his 15-21, 9-21 scoreline, his first loss to Hong since the to met in the 2006 World Junior Championship final.

A Grand Prix Gold tournament such as the Australian Open is the ideal place to cheer for new names to breakthrough.  It is wonderful seeing players such as Hong Ji Hoon and Liew Daren unexpectedly emerging to stun the best in the world into submission.  Their next step is to evolve from giant-killers into tournament victors by focusing on putting five or six match wins back-to-back across a week, and later aspire to becoming big match players.  But first things first: acquiring a first title is their present mission.

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