C’WEALTH GAMES QF – Guru knows best

R.V. Gurusaidutt played one of the matches of his career as he dumped Malaysian favourite Chong Wei Feng out of the draw. Tee Jing Yi played an incredible game finishing absolutely shattered to beat another Indian, P.C. Thulasi. Meanwhile, it was nearly CommonWales for first seeds in the mens’ doubles, as Font / Gwilt almost pulled off the heist against Adcock / Ellis.

By Michael Burke, Badzine Correspondent, live from Glasgow.  Photos: Yohan Nonotte for Badmintonphoto (live).

It was so nearly the greatest performance of their careers as Daniel Font and Oliver Gwilt (pictured left) pushed top seeded Adcock / Ellis all the way.

“Yeah just a little bit harder [than expected]. We turned it on when we needed it, which is the important thing but yeah.” Said Chris.

Andy added, “We didn’t play well, there’s no other way to say it. Really disappointed we let out level drop. Not that happy with that performance but we’ve got through to where we wanted to be.”

“At the start I don’t think they were expecting us to come at them as we did. We played a solid game. We took the first set and then all of a sudden the pressure was on them then. They are the top seeds. We thought we were going to get spanked.” Said Daniel.

“We had them rattled big time. Andy Ellis was playing well but he was nervous. He started flicking all the time.” In the end however, it was the Welsh whose nerves preyed the most as the English got a run of points to finish it.

The English pair will have to step it up, as Middleton / Smith were unable to stop new pair Goh Wei Shem and Tan Wee Kiong.

Malaysia had a shock though as fifth seeded R.V. Gurusaidutt (pictured right) upended top seed Chong Wei Feng.

“I’ve lost four times to him before, they were all very close, but I’ve never beaten him before.” Said Gurusaidutt. “I had to hang on and trust my fitness, believe in myself.”

“He got tired in the third end, and the game changed, I started attacking more and won a few very important points.”

Chong Wei Feng agreed, “Everything went wrong in the third set, I lost seven straight points and it just went.”

Some solace was found however as Tee Jing Yi (pictured left) recovered to beat P.C. Thulasi.

“Today I played a very tough match, the first game I was super slow. The coach said to me, enjoy the game, stop forcing it and then I relaxed and got my feeling. Tomorrow I will just focus on enjoying it.”

Last on, Malaysia added to their joy, as another new pairing of  Lai Pei Jing and Lim Loo Yin knocked out first seeds Lei Yao and Shinta Mulia Sari of Singapore in a thriller. With each side of the stadium taking a side, a womens doubles game once again set the arena alight.

“It feels great, it’s really nice.” Said Lim as they took it in.

“We actually led in the first game but we let them take it. We kept fighting, our coach supporting us, and the crowd really helped. I was actually very tired, but they cheered me up.” She added.

Lai said, “We’re looking forward to playing her [Gutta], she’s the last Commonwealth champion. We’re a new partnership so we have nothing to lose.”

The full results for the day can be found here.