WORLDS 2015 Day 2 – Oceania mixed champs stopped at Round 2

Robin Middleton and Leanne Choo spoke of their plans for the coming months after they were stopped in the second round by world #11 Susanto/Jordan.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent live in Jakarta.
Video: Loïc Meuriot.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Australia’s Robin Middleton and Leanne Choo have enjoyed a promising start to the Olympic qualifying period.  When the rankings came through for this year’s World Championships, there were no Oceanian mixed doubles pairs ranked in top 100, let alone the top 50, where a pair needs to be to earn a continental qualification spot.

But after some impressive results in the past few months – including a victory at the U.S. Open over the soon-to-be Pan Am Games gold medallists – Middleton and Choo are up to #47 in the world and have no intention of stopping there.

They began their campaign at the 2015 World Championships in Jakarta with another win over a Pan Am pair but it came to an end early on Tuesday when they ran into two-time Malaysia Grand Prix Gold runners-up Praveen Jordan and Debby Susanto.

“Unfortunately, today wasn’t our day,” said Robin Middleton after the straight-game defeat to the Indonesians.  “They were significantly better than we were.

“But the atmosphere in there and the quality of badminton is just fantastic – to watch these top guys play is a great honour.

“We’re hopeful that with our tournament programme schedule over the next 8 months, we should maybe be able to make the top 20.  Hopefully, we’ll play better than we did today and we’ll start competing with those guys in there.”

Watch the complete post-match interview with Middleton and Choo below: