SUDIRMAN CUP Day 2 – Group 2 aerial antics and forward planning

There was ample evidence of Australia looking further afield during their 2017 Sudirman Cup debut.

By Aaron Wong, Badzine Correspondent live in Gold Coast.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

For a mixed doubles match there was ‘a helluva lot’ of uncharacteristic aerial antics perpetrated by the host nation’s Setyana Mapasa / Sawan Serasinghe (photo) to which the newer pairing of Jamie Subandhi / Vinson Chiu had few answers. The Australians each were physically more powerful and than their counterparts from the USA and they kept it up separately in level doubles too. Mapasa’s playful and crafty strokes, lightly reminiscent of certain Malaysian and Indonesian men’s doubles stars, was a refreshing contrast from the mechanical displays of most women’s doubles in the tournament thus far.

Real life practice

Is there anything less ingratiating than being repeatedly high served without disguise in men’s doubles? The Australians had assessed swiftly that they weren’t going to be troubled.

Sawan Serasinghe appeared not so much to be testing the mettle of Kyle Emerick / Darren Yang (photo) but prolonging his and Matthew Chau’s court time in order to adjust to conditions as well as experiment with putting themselves into messy defensive situations as practice for future matches when such reflexes are called for. Whenever a small deficit occurred, Serasinghe reeled it the score back even through multiple drives from the forecourt targeted at an isolated opponent. For the Aussies, there was more to gain from not winning outright efficiently since their international outings have been less frequent post-Rio Olympics.

Know yourself at every age

As a result of patiently evaluating the weaponry and level of threat in men’s singles, Timothy Lam came through 21-14, 21-18, over Anthony Joe. Joe’s solid all round core skills show potential and the next stage is to discover and develop the areas he is particularly good at. Investigating the qualities where his sort of physique can excel and noticing his own success at sudden, late-in-the-rally cross-court smash winners executed from high offer some clues. Lam, on the other hand, is already familiar with his own strong suit and seeks to thump down obvious winners. The American hero had the sense to redouble his intensity as soon as shuttles flew into the mid- to three-quarter court zone.

Queenslander Wendy Chen (photo) overcame a terribly nervous start in front of her home crowd as well as being on a TV court to outpace Jennie Gai, 21-18, 21-9, in women’s singles.

Click here for complete Day 2 results