BITBURGER OPEN 2012 Finals – Schizzling Schenk!

After a week of fantastic badminton, Juliane Schenk finally reaped her rewards by clinching her second Bitburger Open title, in a day of mixed fortunes for Germany – Kindervater and Schottler scooped gold while Zwiebler and Michels/Goliszewski had to settle for silver.

By Lee Zhi Jun, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Sven Heise for Badzine

Two titles for Germany

Much to the delight of the enthusiastic crowd of about 1500 in Saarbruecken, the women’s singles finals involving their home favourite, Juliane Schenk (photo) proved to be a nail-biting thriller. When the event got going, she seemed to be cruising to victory against Yao Jie, taking the first game with a comfortable 21-10. However, in the second game, the Dutch veteran managed to find her energy to pull away at 14-all, only allowing Juliane one more point before wrapping up the second game 21-15 to bring it into the rubber game.

The deciding game was a match of high intensity, where both players kept up with each other almost point-to-point, bringing the game to 4 deuce points. Only at 23-all did Juliane manage to get 2 points consecutively and fell to the floor on her back to celebrate her title win. By winning this Bitburger Open title, Juliane should enter the world’s top 4 for a career high.

“The last three weeks were very exhausting . But I am grateful that my body has carried me this far. It’s always nice to play in front of his home crowd and to feel this support. The thrill of it make in the end. Great respect to my opponent. It was a meeting of equals – and thus came about this high-class match,” said Juliane after her hard-earned win.

Earlier on in the day, the home crowd was also treated to a great showing by local men’s doubles pair, Kindervater/Schoettler (photo). They played a solid game to beat England’s Langridge/Mills in straight games – 21-15, 21-11 in just 37 minutes.

“This is absolutely amazing, I’m really happy – I have no words. Twice I was already here in the finals, now it finally worked. Today everything worked!” said Johannes Schoettler.

Easy wins for mixed and women’s doubles

Both the mixed and women’s doubles took only 31 minutes to complete. It was a surprise in the mixed event when 8^th seeded Denmark’s Kristiansen/Houmann upset top-seeded Poles Mateusiak/Zieba in straight games. The Polish pair seemed to have nothing going right for them in the first game. They managed to pick up more in the second game but it was a little too late as the Danes ran to victory.

It was quite the reversed scenario in the women’s doubles. With both teams having nothing to lose, the Macau pair of Wang and Zhang and the German pair of Michels and Goliszewski fought hard in the first game. But in the second game, it was clear that it was the Macau shuttlers that would take the match from the beginning, much to the disappointment of the home supporters.

Emerging talent

In the final match of the day, Chou Tien Chen (photo) prevented Germany from adding to their collection of titles from this tournament. The first game against Marc Zwiebler was extremely evenly matched and the Chinese Taipei youngster managed to prevail with the score of 21-19. In game 2, Marc seemed to have no answer for Chou’s smashes and thus the youngster won the match convincingly in straight games.

“Marc looked a little bit tired in the second game.  This was my chance and I took it.  I drink no beer but I like the Bitburger Open!” said a delighted Chou after his win.

Final results
XD: Anders Kristiansen / Julie Houmann (DEN) [8] bt Robert Mateusiak / Nadiezda Zieba (POL) [1] 21-11, 21-16
MD: Ingo Kindervater / Johannes Schoettler (GER) [2] bt Chris Langridge / Peter Mills (ENG)  21-15, 21-11
WD: Wang Rong / Zhang Zhibo (MAC) bt Johanna Goliszewski / Birgit Michels (GER)  21-15, 21-13
WS: Juliane Schenk (GER) [1] bt Yao Jie (NED) [2]  21-10, 15-21, 25-23
MS: Chou Tien Chen (TPE) [5] bt Marc Zwiebler (GER) [2] 21-19, 21-12

All results HERE