LONDON GPG 2013 R16 – Strong Euro effort

A strong European contingent sees home nations England, Scotland and Ireland all contesting quarter-final matches tomorrow alongside a smattering of Danes and Germans in the inaugural Adidas London Grand Prix Gold event.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Raphael Sachetat for Badmintonphoto (live).

The host nation saw Rajiv Ouseph (pictured left) progress easily, on a day when other seeds struggled. Ouseph strolled past Ting Hsu Jui of Chinese Taipei entirely unscathed, having only been behind once in the match early on in the second game as he booked his quarter-final against Malaysia’s Zulfadli Zulkiffli.

First seed Jan Ø Jorgensen did not fare so well as after taking the first end 21-18, he could not get a foothold in the second game and only briefly challenged in the decider, eventually losing the last two 14-21, 13-21 to the 2013 Australian Open champion, a strong Tian Houwei of China, who completed his first full match of the tournament, his previous opponents both having retired in the second game.

This was a rare black mark for the Danish team, for whom Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Viktor Axelsen still remain in the men’s singles discipline, the latter of which will face the promising Chinese junior Xue Song who was Houwei’s opponent in Sydney, and also the beaten finalist in New Zealand in 2013.

The Danes will also be expectant of Mathias Boe and Carsten Mogensen after a poor showing in the UK earlier this year as they exited in only the third round of the 2013 All England Championships, where Christinna Pedersen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl (pictured right), first seeds in the womens’ doubles this week in London, also fell early to Chinese opposition.

Scotland had a double joy as Kirsty Gilmour (pictured left with Jillie Cooper) made it to the last 8 in both the women’s singles and women’s doubles disciplines, the latter with Jillie Cooper. Gilmour comes off a run of good form, which last week saw her defend her Czech International title in the singles and lose in the final of the doubles with Cooper to compatriot Imogen Bankier and her partner Nedelcheva.

Indonesia still retain a solid chance having at least one contender in every discipline, with over a quarter of the remaining players with good performances from both the seeded and unseeded players.

The all-women Thai squad was reduced to the last lady standing today as Salajkit Ponsana, Amitrapai/Lam and Buranaprasertsuk/Ongbamrungphan all lost out, with only first seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan left in the women’s singles discipline. This follows the surprise loss by Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, the recent Adidas China Masters finalist, who was ousted by the young talent of Sayaka Sato (pictured right) of Japan, who progressed today to face Gilmour in the quarter-final stage.

The full results for the day can be found here.