EUROPEAN MIXED TEAM CHAMPS 2013 – Decisive opening for the top teams

The day’s play ended emphatically with the seventh clean sheet joining the one walkover and the remaining ties all decided by the score of 4-1. The nations feted before the tournament to be battling for the top places – Denmark, Russia, Germany and England – did not struggle, with only two of those 20 matches on court going into a third game.

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

German Mark Zwiebler (pictured), currently ranked 20th in the world, struggled to take a lead early on in his match against Raul Must, paying the price as the Estonian took a run of four points to take the first game 17-21. However, experience would pull through as Zwiebler quickly established a lead in both remaining games to finish the match without any further issues, 21-9, 21-16.

Mixed doubles player Imogen Bankier, who formerly trained with the English players in the Great Britain programme, led her native Scotland in a strong performance. She was untroubled with her new partner Paul Van Rietwelde as they beat Slovaks Hlinican/Repiska in quick time 21-12 21-6, with a jump-smashing Kirsty Gilmour (pictured) clinching the third point and the team following close behind to take the match 5-0.

Bankier’s old partner Chris Adcock, only entered in the men’s doubles for this tournament, was similarly unchallenged as he and Ellis beat their Latvian opponents Edijs/Vidas 21-5 21-5. The minnows could not upset England with only the women’s singles going to a third, where Ieva Pope troubled Sarah Walker for a game, before the higher ranked Walker ran away with it, the final score 12-21 21-10 21-10.

Ireland saw strong performances from a small squad, with Sam and Chloe Magee as well as Scott Evans each playing in a second discipline, with none of them losing on the opening day, and the team pulling out a solid 4-1 victory against Finland.

The Danes, Russians, French and Dutch were not troubled against their respective opponents with 5-0 defeats handed to Norway, Iceland, Israel and Luxembourg respectively. Alesia Zaitsava’s 21-15 21-11 victory was a solitary positive for Belarus as they lost to the Swedes in an otherwise emphatic fashion. Hungary’s Henrik Toth was just able to prevent a clean sweep against the Swiss player Nussbaumer, although this was little consolation as Switzerland went on to take the remaining matches.

The only close match of the day was between Ukraine and Belgium, for which the 4-1 score line does not reflect the match. The collected points for the match went 253 – 233 to the Ukrainians, this slim margin born out in three of the four victories requiring a deciding game.  Lianne Tan (pictured), in particular, saved two match points in an attempt to keep Belgium in the tie before Marija Ulitina finally took it 21-19, 20-22, 24-22.

Find all of the results from the first day of play here