DENMARK OPEN 2010 Day 2 – Kudos for Fuchs, Down for Baun

While German Michael Fuchs won both of his matches in the mixed and men’s doubles at the Odense Idraets Park today, titleholder Tine Baun couldn’t live up to the expectations and was  already stopped in round two by Thailand’s Salakjit Ponsana. Mixed emotions for the Ponsana family as her brother Boonsak was unable to outclass Kashyap Parupalli.

By Elm Vandevorst, Badzine Correspondent. Photos: Yohan Nonotte/Antoine Roullet for Badmintonphoto (live from Odense)

The 28-year-old Fuchs is already considered to be a veteran. As the training staff of the German squad force their players to switch partners after a certain time in order to stay sharp, one can imagine Fuchs has played with a significant selection of partners, for example in the men’s doubles, where he played with, amongst others, Roman Spitko, Ingo Kindervater and Johannes Schöttler. In his latest partnership, Michael Fuchs is playing with Oliver Roth (pictured). Could there be a chance this twosome can stay together for at least a few seasons? Today the German pair proved this might be a great idea as they overcame the sixth-seeded Mads Conrad Petersen / Jonas Rasmussen, also a recently formed pair. After a very tight first set, in which the Germans needed four game points to finish it off at 23-21,  an early lead in the second set was a sign the Germans would bring the match to a close in two, which they did at 21-16.

Earlier that day, Fuchs had already every reason to be pleased as he and partner Birgit Overzier, outclassed Kenta Kazuno and Reika Kakiiwa with 21-15, 21-15. Fuchs already played two finals at the Belgian International in September. First things first, with a more than tricky (Indonesian) test coming up in both of quarter-finals against respectively reigning Olympic champions Markis Kido / Hendra Setiawan and Hendra Gunawan / Vita Marissa.

Ups and downs for Ponsanas

There is even more reason to cheer in the Ponsana camp as Salakjit Ponsana (pictured) can prepare for a quarter-final in the women’s singles. The tiny Salakjit had never beaten Tine Baun before, but took benefit from Baun’s sloppy play. The Danish hope committed a lot of unforced errors at the back line and was never able to take control, giving the Thai the chance to terminate the match at 21-16, 22-20.

“I don’t know what went wrong with my game today. Maybe the wind, or the shuttles were too fast, but it was just not a good day and I knew I had to play well to beat her. She’s a good player and she played at a very high level today,” said the Dane after her match.

Ponsana, who recently won the Thai national championship, avenging a defeat earlier this year to young upstart Ratchanok Intanon, will now face another giant killer, in person of Ai Goto. The Japanese defeated seventh seeded Yip Pui Yin with a clear 21-8, 21-17 victory and by that settled of scores as she lost earlier this year at the Indonesia Open 21-14, 21-10.

Salakjit’s brother Boonsak, who entered the tournament seeded third, couldn’t follow in his sister’s footsteps as Indian Parupalli Kashyap (pictured) wiped the floor with his opponent, certainly in the first set which was terminated 21-9 in favour of the Singapore Open and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.  Ponsana can now support his sister, whereas Kashyap will face China’s Du Pengyu. Also the quarter-final between Kenichi Tago and favourite Taufik Hidayat has to be in the agenda of every badminton enthusiast.

One Dane standing

In the expected showdown between Jan O Jorgensen and new and rising star Viktor Axelsen (both pictured), things went Jan’s way, with a clear 21-14, 21-16 victory.

“I’m happy to report a good 2 set win and more so I am very satisfied with my performance. I did what I set out to do today and I controlled the match from start to finish. When I look back at the game I only had one small period where I rushed things just a little bit when I was leading 10-6 to end up trailing 10-12 in the opening set. But I regained my composure and really I am very satisfied with how things went in general,” said Jorgensen on his blog.

Axelsen talked to Badzine and hinted he didn’t play as well as he should have and that he was mentally tired during the game. “I hope I can do better in Paris next week,” he added. Jorgensen is now the last man standing for Denmark after Gade withdrew from the competition and Joachim Persson got beaten by Hidayat. Taufik’s name came up as Axelsen’s bet for the final winner of the event.

Japan’s power

The Japanese women give the impression of being in total control in the women’s doubles, for once taking over the position of the the discpline’s Chinese dynasty. Alongside the first and second seeds Maeda/Suetsuna and Fujii/Kakiiwa (pictured) also a third pair from Japan won their duel today. Sixth-seeded twosome Shizuka Matsuo and Mami Naito outdid their second Danish pair Celine Juel and Camilla Martens. Yesterday they had already defeated Kamilla Rytter Juhl / Christinna Pedersen and tomorrow they’re up against Petya Nedelcheva /Anastasia Russkikh.

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