SINGAPORE OPEN 2012 Day 1 – No more pull-outs, no qualifier upsets

The show must go on, and with no more pull-out, the Singapore Open 2012 began with a half day program of qualifying round matches starting as early as 9AM at the well set-up arena inside the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

By Timothy Chan, Badzine Correspondent, reporting live from Singapore.  Photos: Yves Lacroix for Badmintonphoto (live)

Local shuttlers did not have a good outing today with some of their men’s singles players losing very narrowly to their opponents.  First to be shown the exit was Robin Gonansa, who put a great fight against Joachim Persson of Denmark 11-21, 21-15, 20-22.  But Joachim did not survive the next match when he had to retire at 7-17 in the first game, allowing Anand Pawar of India to cruise into tomorrow main draw first round.

Local boy Huang Chao was close to making it to the main draw but only to lose narrowly to unknown Wisnu Haryo Putro (pictured) of Italy 21-9, 14-21, 21-23.  Huang later partnered Robin for the men’s doubles but they lost to their compatriots Jeffrey Wong / Pribadi Setia Atmaja in a tightly fought encounter, losing 21-15, 16-21 and 14-21.

An elated Wong said after the match, “We weren’t at our best form at the start of the match but as we warmed up, we started to communicate and play better.  This gave us the confidence booster we needed to win.  The crowd were also very supportive and we really wanted to win it and make them proud.”

They will be facing Japanese pair Naoki Kawamae and Shoji Sato Wednesday at 7:30PM.  The surprise entry of Hendri Kurniawan Saputra and Hendra Wijaya saw them pitting their skills against the mixed-nations pair of Robert Blair of Scotland and Malaysia’s Tan Bin Shen (pictured).  The break from competition took its toll on the Singaporean pair when they crashed out losing 15-21, 13-21.

But later on Blair and Tan lost to former MS world no. 6 Ronald Susilo, who partnered his brother-in-law Candra Wijaya.  Ronald and Candra were confident from the get-go and with the duo seemingly determined to put their opponents to the sword in a swift manner, they emerged with a 21‐19, 21‐19 win and they are now through to the main draw.

“Today’s match against Robert [Blair] and Tan [Bin Shen] turned out to be an exciting clash.  Candra and myself are delighted to have made it to the draw.  We will go back into training and evaluate the positives and negatives from the match so that we can come out stronger in our next game against the tough pair of Malaysian duo, Mak Hee Chun and Teo Kok Siang,” said Ronald.

Foreign players fight hard to march into main draw

Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro, who has done a nose dive to drop to world no. 45, landing himself in the qualifying rounds these days, had to play two matches in one day and he won both against Chan Kwong Beng of Malaysia at and Tan Yuhan of Belgium.  He will now play against World No.10 Du Pengyu of China who is one of the leading contenders for the MS title.

Another Indonesian player, Andre Kurniawan Tedjono (pictured) also made it to the main draw, beating Arvind Bhat of India 11-21, 21-19, 21-15 and Mohamed Arif Abdul Latif 21-16, 22-20.  India also has two out of five representatives that make it to the main draw – Anand Pawar and Gurusaidutt R.M.V.  Malaysia also has one pair of men’s doubles Kok Zhengyi / Kong Keat Shun went into the main draw, after beating Sanjeeth/Jagadish Yadav 21-19, 21-14.