YONEX POLISH INTERNATIONAL – Abian and Russians stop Asia

In their first match of the tournament Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk had to contend with Wong Wai Hong and Chau Hoi Wah from Hong Kong. The Polish pair took the first game easily and wasted three match points in the second then lost the match 21-11, 21-23, 15-21.

“Our performance in the first game was better but the opponents at that time were making many simple errors,” explained Kostiuczyk. “This girl we had seen earlier and I knew she played well. I did not know the boy. At the very beginning we knew it would be hard. They are Asians…”

“It is a pity. We could have won in straight games. We played slowly and when we play slowly we have always problems. Now we have hard practicing before European Championships, so after this result theoretically we should not even be prepared for that tournament. Nevertheless it is a shame because I know we could have won even being off form,” said Kostiuczyk with regret.

Also other big Polish favourites, Przemyslaw Wacha and Wang Linling, encountered difficulties from the beginning.  In the second round, Wacha defeated Ashton Chen Yongzhao (Singapore) 25-27, 22-20, 21-12 with both players expressing reservations about the performance of some of the line judges. In the quarter-final, Wacha played without his usual vigour and lost to Shuhei Hayasaki from Japan 18-21, 19-21.

Wang Linling went one step further than Wacha. The defending champion won a hard first round match versus Yuka Kusunose (Japan) 21-12, 16-21, 22-20, then beat Tatyana Bibik (Russia) and  in the quarter-final number one seed – Zhang Beiwen (Singapore) 22-20 21-18. In the semi-final the next Japanese, Kana Ito, was too strong for the Chinese living in Poland and Ito prevailed 21-15, 16-21, 21-14.

The misfortunes of the Polish mixed doubles favourites and Wacha were completed by the defeats of the last Polish representantitives in semi-finals in doubles. Adam Cwalina and Lukasz Moren were defeated by Russia’s Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov 9-21, 21-17, 21-16. Natalia Pocztowiak and Agnieszka Wojtkowska lost to Chan Tsz Ka and Chau Hoi Wah from Hong Kong 21-19, 21-10.

The absence of host players in the finals was hard to predict after the Polish successes of Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk in Super Series and the silver medal of the men’s team in the European Team Championships.

Spanish Striker

But in Bialystok the upsets were also painful for non-Polish players. In women’s singles not only did Zhang Beiwen depart with no medal but Judith Meulendijks of the Netherlands, the number two seed, was sent home early after being defeated by Anastasia Prokopenko from Russia 24-22, 21-13.

Meulendijks, was obviously underperforming after losing her court battle with fellow Dutch senior players Eric Pang and Dicky Palyama against their national federation.  The three are now subsequently out of their national squad.

Another big favourite, Denmark’s Joachim Persson , the number one seed, got a medal but not exactly the colour he planned. Pablo Abian from Spain was simply much better in the semi-final than the favourite from Denmark. But Persson blasted Abian for tactical trickery towards the end of the second game when the Spaniard deliberately lay down on the court to force a break in play (in order to wipe down the ‘wet’ court). The incident obviously distracted the Danish player. Earlier Abian defeated two other Danish players (Kristian Midtgaard and Peter Mikkelsen) and Indra Bagus Ade Chandra from Indonesia, playing now for Spain.

Russia rules

The first final, women’s doubles, was the longest one. Shinta Mulia Sari/ Yao Lei (bottom right) beat Chan Tsz Ka/ Chau Hoi Wah (Hong Kong, 4) 18-21 21-16 21-10. But the finals were not monopolized or dominated by Asia. Ivanov and Sozonov of Russia defeated top-seeded Yohan Hadikusumo Wiratama and Wong Wai Hong (Hong Kong), 21-17 14-21 21-14.

Russia comes into the picture again

The Russians were very happy: “We defeated a very strong pair. This is the biggest win in our career,” – said Sozonov. “For psychological reasons the final was for us harder than semi-final match. That’s the final, isn’t it?”

His doubles partner Ivanov explained that in spite of his 1.97 m height  he is not just some basketball player who had to give up his first sport to practice badminton. “To put it simply I have always played only badminton,” laughed the Russian giant.

For all results click HERE