BITBURGER OPEN 2012 SF – 4 title shots for Germany

The home team will make appearances in 4 out of the 5 finals on Sunday, with one German entry in every events aside from the mixed doubles.

By Lee Zhi Jun, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Sven Heise for Badzine

The women’s singles event went as expected when the first seed, Juliane Schenk and second seed, Yao Jie made it into the finals by defeating the third and fourth seeds, Petya Nedelcheva and Carolina Marin, respectively.

While Yao Jie quickly beat Carolina in straight games – 21-17, 21-15 – home favourite Juliane Schenk took slightly longer to warm up, losing the first game 14-21 before running away with the second game 21-6 and convincingly taking the rubber game with the score of 21-15 over her Bulgarian opponent.

“It was a very strange match.  I think it shows in the results,” said Juliane Schenk after her match.   “For me, what is important is that I can rely on my strength, that I can always come back into the match.  That’s a nice feeling.”

Chou Tien Chen (pictured) must be absolutely relieved that he beat his higher-seeded opponent, Rajiv Ouseph, after he was able to hold his nerve in the rubber game to pull out a narrow 14-21, 21-17, 23-21 win.  The Chinese Taipei lad will be taking on the home team’s Marc Zwiebler (pictured top), who also had a tough match stopping a fine run by Malaysia’s Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif, winning 10-21, 21-17, 15-21.

“The first game was perhaps a bit too simple and in the second game, Arif changed his tactics.  It took a while until I had prepared myself, but then it ran again,” said Zwiebler.

Zwiebler now has a chance to become the first German to win a Grand Prix men’s singles title on home soil in a dozen years.  No German has ever won the German Open in the discipline and the last time the German flag was raised at Bitburger for was back in its one-star tournament days.

Birgit Michels failed to make it to 2 out of 2 finals but her delight in making it to the women’s doubles finals with her new partner Johanna Goliszewski (pictured) made up for her disappointment in losing the mixed event to Denmark’s Kristiansen/Houmann.

“This is just amazing.  We have only played four tournaments together – and now we are in the final.  I am particularly pleased for Johanna, that is her biggest success to date,” said Michels.

She and her partner will take on surprise finalists, Macau’s Wang/Zhang, who squeaked through past the top seeds from Singapore, Sari/Yao in straight games 21-18, 22-20.

In the only final not involving the home team, the Denmark mixed pair will be meeting the top seeds, Poland’s Robert Mateusiak / Nadiezda Zieba, who beat Singapore’s Chrisnanta/Neo 21-12, 21-19.

England’s Chris Langridge / Peter Mills (pictured) smashed their way through Denmark’s Bonde/Conrad Petersen but home pair, Kindervater/Schoettler prevented an all-English final, while ensuring that Germany will have four title opportunities on Sunday.  The top German men’s doubles pair beat third seeds Adcock/Ellis 17-21, 21-17, 21-19.

Finals line-up
XD: Robert Mateusiak / Nadiezda Zieba (POL) [1] vs. Anders Kristiansen / Julie Houmann (DEN) [8]
MD: Ingo Kindervater / Johannes Schoettler (GER) [2] vs. Chris Langridge / Peter Mills (ENG)
WD: Wang Rong / Zhang Zhibo (MAC) vs. Johanna Goliszewski / Birgit Michels (GER)
WS: Juliane Schenk (GER) [1] vs. Yao Jie (NED) [2]
MS: Marc Zwiebler (GER) [2] vs. Chou Tien Chen (TPE) [5]

Click here for complete semi-final results