All England Champs 2010

The biggest tournament of 2010 to date has provided the best field of the year to date and the first appearance of Lin Dan of 2010. Lee Chong Wei is in ominous form after winning the opening two Super Series events of the year and Peter Gade has peaked himself for this tournament. It is the one that every player wants to win.

Mens Singles:

#1 Seed: Lee Chong Wei

Round 1 Opponent: Chetan Anand (India)

He is the form player of 2010, unbeaten in Super Series this year and is in the best form of his career coming into the All England Championships. The big question is over his ability to defeat the current champion Lin Dan and win this title for the first time in his career. He faces a challenging route to the final, with Jan O Jorgensen, Peter Gade and Taufik Hidayat in his half of the draw.

The Contenders:

#2 Seed: Lin Dan

Round 1 Opponent: Qualifier

He fell off the badminton radar since his Chinese Super Series win in November and threaten a return in Malaysia only to pull out before the event. His potential route to the final is a Chinese wall of Bao Chunlai and Chen Jin but even as the #2 seed and not playing a competitive match for almost 4 months, he is still the massive favourite to win this title.

#5 Seed: Peter Gade

Round 1 Opponent: Dicky Palyama (Netherlands)

It was 11 long years ago from Gade’s only All England title and at 33, this could be his last chance to claim title #2. He has focused his entire year to date in winning this title and has claimed that he is at the peak of his form coming into the event. He is coming off a small role in Denmark’s Team Championship success in Poland last month and a runner-up spot in the Korean Super Series but his route to the final is perhaps the hardest in the draw, not to mention Dicky Palyama beat Gade at the All Englands a few years back.

Women’s Singles

#1 Seed: Wang Yihan

Round 1 Opponent: Ella Diehl (Russia)

The 2009 Champion has taken almost 6 weeks off since her surprise loss to Bae Youn Joo in the Malaysian Super Series and most likely redoubled her training to give herself the best chance to retain her All England crown. In a draw loaded with Chinese talent, she is still the one to beat here.

The Contenders:

Every other Chinese lady in the draw.

Such is the depth of quality that the Chinese have in this discipline that any of the Chinese ladies in the main draw have a legitimate chance to win this title. Wang Xin, winner of the Malaysian Super Series is seeded 5. Wang Shixian, winner of the Korean Super Series is unseeded. Current world champion Lu Lan is seeded 6^th for the event and there’s still Wang Lin and Jiang Yanjiao is seeded #3 also.

Unseeded: Tine Rasmussen

Round 1 Opponent: Kim Hi Moon (Korea)

The 2009 runner-up was out of action for 6 months with a heel injury and suffered a massive drop off in her ranking points to lose her seeding the 2010 All Englands. She is the big European hope for the title, but faces a mammoth task to reach the final with the 2^nd seed Wang Lin waiting in Round 2 and potentially Lu Lan in the Quarter Finals.

Mens Doubles:

#1 Seeds: Koo and Tan

Round 1 Opponents: Paaske and Rasmussen (Denmark)

The first round match is perhaps one of the matches of the opening round of any of the five disciplines but they are coming in to the event off the back of their Malaysian Super Series victory

The Contenders:

#2 Seeds : Lee and Jung

Round 1 Opponents: Qualifier

The Korean Super Series champions come into the competition after a shock round 1 exit in Malaysia. The question of what pair appears at the All England will determine how far they go, will it be the pair that defeated Cai and Fu in Korean or the pair that suffered a shock round 1 defeat?

#5 Seeds: Cai and Fu

Round 1 Opponents: Ahsan and Septano (Indonesia)

The 2009 winners and current world champions haven’t played a match since their Korean Super Series final loss to Lee and Jung and are not in the draw for the Swiss Super Series next week so it seems like they are focussing all their effort into defending their All England title and with a rematch with Lee and Jung at the semi final stage in this weeks event.

Women’s Doubles:

#1 Seeds: Du and Yu

Round 1 Opponents: Matsutomo and Takahashi

The Malaysian Super Series winners play only their second event of 2010 after defeating Ma and Wang in their first event of this year. The draw has been favourable to them in that the other two seeded Chinese pairs are in the bottom half of the draw but a potential second round match with Vislova and Sorokina could test them early in the competition.

The Contenders:

#2: Ma and Wang

Round 1 Opponents: Reid and Grether (Canada/Germany)

The top seeds in Malaysia will have to settle for the #2 seed this week, but are coming off a win in last weeks German Open against the 3^rd seeded Cheng and Zhao, who they could face in the semi finals this week and then possible revenge for their Malaysian Super Series loss.

Mixed Doubles:

#1 Seed: Ma and Zheng

Round 1 Opponents: Ko and Ha

This is their first outing of 2010 after pulling out of the Malaysian Super Series, very much like Lin Dan did. However they do not have the domination of Lin Dan and there is several other Chinese partnerships capable of defeating them if they have another off-form day like in the 2009.

The Contenders:

#3 Seed: Lee and Lee

Round 1 Opponents: Liao and Chen (Chinese Taipei)

The 2008 Olympic Champions have had a difficult 2010 to date, losing in the opening round of their home event in Korea and then having to pull out the next week in Malaysia. Lee Hyo Jung is solely playing mixed doubles in the event and has been for the entire year so this is her only chance to win this week.

Qualifying begins Tuesday at 12 noon

Round 1 begins Wednesday at 10am

The Draws

Join in our All England 2010 Discussion Forum Now!

Bao Leads China's Charge

Four of the five finals today had Chinese interest, an ominous sign to the Badminton world ahead of next weeks All-England Championships. The only final not to have some sort of Chinese interest was the mixed doubles final with Ying Suet Tse and Yohan Hadikusumo Wiramata playing Robert Blair and Imogen Bankier. The match turned out to be an anti-climax as the British pair of Blair and Bankier had to retired trailing 15-5 in the opening game. Bankier missed most of the second half of 2009 with a knee injury.

The men’s singles final was an All-Chinese affair between the top two seeds, Bao Chunlai and Chen Long. The second seed started off the better, leading the opening game 8-6 before Bao Chunlai strung nine points together and took an unassailable lead in the game, eventually winning it 21-13. Chen Long never recovered from the run in the first game and never lead in the second game, with the top seed stringing together a several 3 and 4 point streaks of points and took the second game 21-10 to claim the title. Bao Chunlai is the 6^th seed for the All-England next week.

The women’s singles final was the main attraction for the home crowd, after Juliane Schenk’s stunning win over top seed Wang Lin to reach the final. She would play the 2^nd seed from China, Wang Xin for the title today. The opening game was a tight affair, with Schenk staying within touching distance of her opponent and managed to claw it back to 17-17 in the opening game, but Wang Xin strung together the next 4 points to take the opener 21-17. The second game was a similar story and the pair exchanged the lead early in the game, but Wang Xin showed her class at 13-12 in the game, she reeled off 6 points in the row and a valiant comeback from Schenk to bring it back to 19-17 wasn’t enough as the second seed won 2 of the next 3 points to take the second game 21-18.

The Women’s doubles final was the 4^th match on and another all-Chinese match between the top two seeds, Ma and Wang against Cheng and Zhao. The opening game was dominated by the top seeds Ma and Wang but a 5 point streak from 14-18 down gave the second seeds a lead late in the game, both pairs exchanged two game points before Ma and Wang took the game 24-22. The second game started just as the first did, with the top seeds taking an early lead only to be pulled back later in the game, however at 14-14 it was Ma and Wang’s turn to chain 5 points together to take a 19-14 and won two of the next three points to win the match 24-22, 21-15.

The final match of the day saw the 5^th seeded Chai and Zhang of China play Lin and Lang over Chinese Taipei. The second seeds dominated the opening game, refusing to give their Chinese opponents a chance to get close to levelling the scores and at 19-17 up, served out for the opening game. The second game however, was a different story as it was the Chinese pair that dominated the game, never letting the opponents lead through the entire game and won the second game comfortably 21-13 to take it to a deciding game. The third game started like the opening game, with Lin and Lang taking an early lead but trailing 8-12, Chai and Zhang put together a stunning run of 7 consecutive points to lead 15-12 and went from strength to strength to take the match 21-15 and China’s fourth title in Germany this week.

Sunday’s Complete Results

Wang Lin Falls to Schenk

Heading into the finals tomorrow China has secured themselves finalists in all of the finals with the exception of the mixed doubles event.  Perhaps the strongest challenge to China’s dominance in the finals tomorrow is home town favourite Juliane Schenk who upset top seeded Wang Lin today in three close games 17-21, 21-15, 21-16.  The German proved that she is one of the few Europeans capable of challenging the Chinese in the women’s singles event, but she will have to do it again tomorrow against second seeded Wang Xin if she wants to take home the title.

In the mixed doubles it was England’s Robert Blair and Scotland’s Imogen Bankier that prevented China from having a pair in the finals when they defeated Tao Jiaming and Zhang Yawen in two games 21-17, 21-19.  While the British pair may not have been seeded, Blair has a history of winning some big matches, like appearance in the 2006 World Championships finals in the men’s doubles, so it’s best not to underestimate this pair tomorrow when they face Hong Kong’s Yohan Hadikusumo Wiramata and Tse Ying Suet.

As is so often the case, China has already secured themselves a top finish in both the women’s doubles and the men’s singles.  In the women’s doubles the top two seeded pairs are facing off after Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei sailed passed Russia’s Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova, and they will play Ma Jin and Wang Xiaoli in the finals.

The men’s singles featured two Chinese players facing off against two Malaysians.  First it was Chen Long up against Hafiz Hashim.  Hafiz has been trying to regain his top form, and while this tournament was an improvement for the lanky Malaysian, Chen Long was the better player winning in two straight games 21-15, 21-19.  Next up it was Bao Chunlai against Wong Choong Han.  Similar to Hashim, Wong has had a fairly good run in Germany this week, but Bao was much stronger winning 21-18, 21-13.

Finally in the mens doubles we can look forward to up and coming Chinese pair Chai Biao and Zhang Nan taking to the courts against Chinese Taipei’s Chung Hun Lin and Lin Yu Lang.

German Open 2010 Semi-Final Results

Zwiebler Falls

Bao Chunlai continues his domination with another impressive two game victory, this time over Tan Chun Seang of Malaysia, 21-13, 21-7 to book his place in tomorrow’s semi final. He will play Wong Choong Hann, the 3^rd seed from Malaysia is his opponent in the semi final after defeating the 6^th seed in Dicky Palyama in three games, 15-21, 21-13, 21-17. The German interest in the singles ended today, with 4^th Marc Zweibler losing out to the 8^th seeded Hashim Muhammad Hafiz in two games, 21-12, 21-16. Chen Long is his semi-final opponent after defeating Wong Wing Ki in two games, 21-18, 21-15.

Wang Lin is through to the semi final after defeating Jeanine Cicognini 21-12, 21-14. The Chinese top seed will play the final German left in the competition, the 3^rd seed Juliane Schenk. The 3^rd seed has failed to drop a game en route to the semi final and will play the Chinese top seed in Wang Lin. Wang Xin, the second seed is also through after a scare against Wong Mew Choo, the 6^th seed from Malaysia. Wang Xin going through 21-13, 20-22, 21-13 and will play Chan Tsz Ka of Hong Kong in the semi final after she defeated Tse Ting Suet 22-20, 21-18.

In the doubles events, the Chinese pairs have dominated play. Tao and Zhang are through to the mixed doubles semi final; the fours seeds in the women’s doubles are through including the top two seeds from China. Blair and Bankier are making a return after Bankier’s injury last year, they have reached the semi final and will play Tao and Zhang of China in the last 4.

Friday’s Complete Results

Top Seeds Choong and Lee Fall

The first round proper begun with the top seed men’s singles player Bao Chunlai in action, his opponent Sven-Eric Kastens posing little threat as the #1 seed progressed 21-9, 21-11 into round two.  The majority of the seeds in the men’s singles had little trouble in progressing into the second round, Dicky Palyama who is seeded 6^th was taken the full distance by Rei Sato of Japan, eventually the Dutch seed won 18-21, 21-11, 21-14. The bottom half of the men’s singles draw also had no shocks with the seeds, with Marc Zweibler progressing 22-20, 21-11 over Wei Feng Chong. Chen Long also safely marched into round 2 with his 21-7, 21-9 win over Dharma Gunawi.

The men’s doubles lost its top seed Choong and Lee of Malaysia in Round 1 at the hands of Liao and Wu of Chinese Tapiei, 21-18, 22-20. Another Malayian seed fell later in the day, with the 6^th seeded Chan and Lim losing out to Japanese duo Endo and Hirobe in three games, 13-21, 21-18, 21-15. The second seeded Lin and Chen progressed in a tight two game encouter with the Danish pair Conrad-Petersen and Kolding, 21-16, 21-17.

The women’s singles suffered the biggest fallout regarding the seeds, 8^th seeded Judith Meulendijks crashed out to Jeanine Cicognini in a three game encounter, 18-21, 21-15, 21-15 to the Swiss player. Petya Nedelcheva, the 5^th seed was the next seed to fall. Trupti Murgurdi of India beating the Bulgarian seed 12-21, 21-8, 21-14 to progress into Round 2. It was a bad day for the Dutch ladies, as 4^th seeded Yao Jie was the 3^rd seed to lose out in the opening round, Tse Ying Suet defeating the 4^th seed, 22-20, 21-13.

The women’s doubles seen the 3^rd and 4^th seeds progress into Round 2, where the top 2 Chinese seeds will play their opening match in the event. The 3^rd seeded Cheng and Chien came through a 3-game match against Russkikh and Nedelcheva to book their place in the second round. The 4^th seed Russian pair of Sorokina and Vislova had little problem in their opening match, defeating Heisbol and Skelbae of Denmarr 21-14, 21-19 to book their place in Round 2.

Round 2’s matches begin with the top seeded Bao Chunlai in action at 9am on Thursday.

Wednesday’s Complete Results

Bao Chunlai

This weeks German Open is usually the warm-up event for the All-England Championships next week, with most of the top players taking the chance to play three events in Europe in three weeks. However, the contenders for next week’s All-Englands are taking another week to rest making Bao Chunlai the top seed in Germany.

The Chinese are well represented in the event, with the top two seeds in the Women’s Singles in Wang Xin and Wang Lin. Ma Jin and Wang Xiaoli are the top seeds in the Women’s Doubles, Cheng Shu and Yunlei Zhao are seeded two.

Bao Chunlai begins his campaign against Sven-Eric Kastens from Germany; Chen Long also plays a local German player in Dharma Gunawi. The men’s draw is a huge 64-man field but Day 1 sees every first round match being played in all five events.

The Danes are well represented at the tournament, however the likes of Peter Gade, Tine Rasmussen, Jan O Jorgensen and the likely seeded pairings in the doubles have opted out of this weeks event. The English have sent almost a full-strength squad to the event, with the exception of Jenny Wallwork and Nathan Robertson.

Marc Zweibler is one of the big local attractions this week, seeded 4 in the men’s singles and in with a chance of winning his national open. Juliane Schenk is another German in with a shot of winning, she is seeded 3 in the women’s singles but both Schenk and Zweibler will likely have to defeat one of the higher seeded Chinese players to have a chance.

Play begins in the first round at 9am local time on Wednesday:

Wednesday’s order of play

Indonesia Tops Podium in Austria

Four of the five events had an Indonesian in the semi final stage of the Austrian Open, with Andre Kurniawan Tedjono playing the top seeded Brice Leverdez in the first of the men’s singles semi final. After losing the first game, the Indonesian 3^rd seed won the next two to progress to the final 12-21, 21-12, 21-6.

The French still had a chance of at least one finalist, with Mathieu Lo Ying Ping playing Raul Must of Estonia in the second semi final. This time, the French had reason to celebrate as the 5^th seed defeated his Estonian opponent 21-19, 21-13 to set up a final with Tedjono.

The women’s singles had another Indonesian, Fransisca Ratnasari who played against Scotland’s Susan Egelstaff. Even though Ratanasari was the lower seed, she took the victory easily, 21-14, 21-14 to set up a match with the top seed, Petya Nedelcheva. The Bulgarian defeated unseeded Japanese player Tamaki Pujii 21-11, 21-16 to progress into the final.

The top two seeds in the mixed doubles safely progressed into the final also, Atrashenkov and Prus beating unseeded Swiss duo Dumartheray and Jaquet 21-13, 21-19 to book their place in the final. Second seeded Makarski and Dimova of Bulgaria had to defeat 5^th seeds Okvana and Megawati of Indonesia to progress into the final.

The women’s doubles would be an all-Japanese final, with the 3 seeds Eto and Wakita of Japan defeating the 2^nd seeded Kobtseva and Prus 21-15, 21-3 to go through to the final. Fukuman and Mitani defeated Mason and Cooper of Scotland 24-22, 21-15 to book their place in the final.

The men’s doubles would have another Indonesian influence, with Okvana and Putra defeating the second seeded Ellis and Mills in the semi final 21-17, 15-21, 21-14 to book their place in the final. They would play another English pair in the final, with Ellis and George beating Constantin and Vincent 21-18, 21-16.

The Finals took place on the same day, some 3 hours after the end of play in the semi finals. The first final was the mixed doubles between the top two seeds. The exchanged the first two games before the top seeded Ukrainians served out at 17-17 in the third to win 24-26, 21-17, 21-17.

The second final was the women’s singles final; yet again the pair shared the opening 2 games before the Indonesian defeated the top seeded Nedelcheva 21-15, 18-21, 21-14 in 62 minutes. The Indonesian success would continue in the men’s singles final, with 3^rd seeded Tedjono beating Lo Ying Ping of France 21-12, 21-11 to double Indonesia’s wins in the tournament.

The all-Japanese women’s doubles final was won by the 3^rd seeded Eto and Wakita over Fukuman and Mitani 21-14, 21-10. The final match was the men’s doubles and it was title number 3 for Indonesia as Okvana and Putra defeated Ellis and George 21-17, 21-23, 28-26 in a 64 minute classic.

Austrian International 2010 Final Results

Austria International Underway

The first round of the Austrian International began this afternoon, after a morning of qualification to determine the final players entered into the main draw. The mixed doubles was the first on court, and it didn’t take long to lose one of the seeds, Claes and Descamps of Belgium (seeded 4). The remaining 7 seeds safely progressed into round 2. The Belgians had reason to celebrate soon after, with Lianne Tan taking out the 6^th seeded Jeanine Cicognini of Switzerland in the opening round of the women’s singles. The other 7 seeds safely progressing into tomorrow’s second round.

The men’s singles was less than clear-cut, with two seeds falling in the opening round and several other seeds being taken the full distance. Anand Pawar survived a very tight match with Pavel Florian of the Czech Republic, winning the third game 26-24. For other seeds, their chances of progressing didn’t last until a 3^rd game, with 4^th seeded Christian Lind Thomsen crashing out to Petr Koukal of the Czech Republic 21-19, 21-11. At the same time, 7^th seeded Dmytro Zavadsky crashed out to unseeded Scottish player Kieran Merrilees. The Scot winning 21-17, 15-21, 21-13 to progress into round 2.

The men’s doubles saw top seeded local pair of Koch and Zauner fall to unseeded Russian duo of Ashmarin and Ivanov. Tomorrow sees the compeititon topple in size, with an all-Russian affair in the women’s singles as Tatjana Bibik playing Anastasia Prokopenko who both won their singles in the European Team Final over Denmark.

Kieran Merrilees reward for beating 7^th seeded Zavadsky is a match against Yuhan Tan of Belgium; as for Petr Koukal he plays Simon Maunoury of France.

Thursday’s complete results

It can be difficult at times being a badminton fan living in North America.  Few people give our sport the respect it deserves, and that frustrates us, am I right?  But what do we do about it?  We complain to our fellow badminton fans that we never get to see badminton on television.  We complain that we don’t have as much funding as other more popular sports.  We complain that our athletes do not put up the big results.  All we do is complain.

The problem is not just in North America of course.  Internationally we suffer from the same inferiority complex.  Players complain that the prize money and sponsorship deals don’t come close to those of tennis.  What does BWF do about this?  They sign with a sports promotions agency.  They change the scoring system.  They partner with pop stars to promote the game.  They change the scoring system back.  They change the scoring system again.  They change the tour structure.  They drop their agency and sign with another. It just keeps going on and on, but there has been zero progress.  In fact adjusted for inflation, I would bet that we have gone backwards on almost every financial metric you can think of (prize money, TV ad deals, etc etc).

China’s economic growth is good for badminton, no doubt about that.  However, if China continues to be such a dominant force abroad it’s not very entertaining.  We need several countries capable of challenging China’s dominance.  I’m not talking about 4 or 5, I’m talking about 20 or so.  Denmark won the European Team Championship again this year.  Absolute domination.  Denmark is a very small country, but they have a lot of badminton players, and the systems they have in place for the sport are fantastic for developing players.  They are far from being perfect, former Danish national coach Steen Pedersen told me that Denmark will fall behind the Asians soon if they don’t start putting more into the sport.  So what is the big underlying problem?

“Badminton is the second most popular sport in the world behind soccer in terms of participation.”

I don’t know how many different people, and sources I have heard this from, but I can assure you it is false.  I have mistakenly told people this in the past as well, so don’t feel bad.  Even if it was true, if you removed China from the calculation it would certainly take us out of the running.  Badminton is not suffering from lack of popularity in China.  I’m willing to bet that Lin Dan and the rest of the Chinese national team members are doing just fine for themselves.  Do not quote that stat, it is false, it is wrong, and even if it isn’t it’s just a ridiculous thing to say.  If badminton is so popular then why is there no money in the sport?

Below I have included a little graphic to more clearly demonstrate the sport of badminton’s greatest problem:

The original version of this graphic was actually taken from a food pyramid graphic describing how in order to have a certain number of meat eating predators, you need to have significantly more grass eating prey, and then to support the grass eating prey you need to have A LOT OF GRASS.  Are you seeing where this is headed yet?

Looking at the top of the pyramid you will see Lin Dan.  He is the greatest player in the world today, and of all time.  In order to produce one Lin Dan you need the support of a couple dozen national team players.  These are players who in their own right could be world champions were it not for Lin Dan (ie Chen Jin lost in the final of the 2009 Worlds to Lin Dan, as did Bao Chunlai in 2006).  Then in order to support the top national team there are many many more players who would easily be top 20 players if the rest of the Chinese team wasn’t in their way.  Then if we skip all the way to the bottom, you see a whopping 50,000 provincial level players.  These are people who might even be top 20 players in a country like Canada or the USA, but in China they are nothing special.

Most of the badminton organizations that I am aware of spend the majority of their time and money focusing on that top part of the pyramid.  The same applies to both BWF and the national associations like Badminton Canada.  They spend their time focuses on what they can do at the top level to improve the game, and they wonder why they can’t get any traction, why things never get any better.  It’s like trying to design a better water hose to clean your car with, but you neglect to turn up the water pressure at the tap.

Dear Badminton Canada, stop spending all of your time and energy focusing exclusively on how to qualify athletes for the Olympics.  Stop spending all your energy debating on whether team selection criteria should be more internationally or domestically focused.  These are important things to spend SOME of your energy on.  You should instead spend MOST of your energy on promoting the game at the grassroots level.  This does not mean spend more energy on juniors that are going to World Championships, this does not mean creating a better junior circuit.  Again these are important, but they are not the most important thing to be doing right now.  The number one thing we should be spending our energy on is promoting the sport of badminton to people who do not yet realize how great it is.

I have been a part of countless badminton exhibitions over the years, as a player, and as a videographer recording them.  In every single exhibition I have been involved with people have been amazed at how great our sport is.  The ooohs and aaaahs were limitless, and these kids were ripe for the picking.  They were young and impressionable, and could easily have been converts.  Given a choice between hockey and badminton, some of these kids would have chosen badminton, I guarantee it.  I know kids who made that choice.  Martin Giuffre, the Canadian National Runner Up this year made that choice.  The problem there was nothing in place to try and convert these kids.  Take a look at this promo video from one exhibition tour I was a part of in North Carolina four years ago:

Click here to view the embedded video.

As you can see, a lot of these kids were really excited about watching badminton.  No, they didn’t know who the players were.  They may have heard that Tony Gunawan and Howie Bach were World Champions, but I honestly don’t think that mattered much.  What mattered was the game was exciting to watch.  You don’t need world class players to promote the sport.  Even national or provincial level players will impress people who don’t know our sport well.

So why wasn’t this exhibition a huge success?  Why aren’t there more people playing badminton in the USA, or more specifically North Carolina?  A couple reasons:

1. No follow up
2. Nowhere to play

Number 2 isn’t really an issue as there is a decent number of people playing at different schools in the Raleigh area.  The real issue is that there was no follow up.  Nobody was identifying who the real keen kids were, and nobody was following up to try and convert them.  This is something that the sport of badminton as a whole has failed to do very well thus far.  The national and regional associations are not doing enough to build databases of badminton fanatics, and the corporations are not doing their part to foster the growth of the sport either.  Companies like Yonex seem more interested in maintaining market share than in growing the market as a whole.

As fans of this sport it is our obligation to promote the sport in whatever way we can.  It is our obligation to organize exhibitions, to be involved, to help introduce our sport to as many people as we can.  If we are not doing our part, we do not deserve to complain anymore.

I want badminton to be more popular than tennis.  Forget that, I want badminton to be more popular than soccer.  I’m doing what I can by starting this project with Peter.  We want to promote this sport the best we can.  I want to offer whatever help I can to bring this game to the level it needs to be at.  If you want to help too, tell your national or regional organization to read this article, and then they can email me at info@badmintonlife.com and I will do whatever I can to help bring badminton to the next level in your area.

Badminton can be so much bigger than it currently is, we just need to believe it can be done.

Danish Men and Women Win Euro Champs

Coming into the match, Denmark had dropped just one match of the 19 matches that they had played. They were the clear favourites against Russia, but knew this would be their hardest match of the competition. Tine Rasmussen was expected to defeat Ella Diehl to take the lead in the match, and delivered in stunning fashion with a 21-8, 21-14 victory to give Denmark a 1-0 lead.

If Rasmussen’s win was expected, then Tatjana Bibik’s win was just as unexpected. A stunning 21-12, 21-11 upset over Camilla Sorensen levelled the match at 1-1. Denmark were to be shocked further, with Anastasia Prokopenko’s 3-game victory over Karina Jorgensen 19-21, 21-16, 21-16 putting Russia on the brink of a stunning upset and the title of European Champions.

The Danish doubles had to save the match, with Lena Frier Kristiansen and Kamilla Rytter Juhl taking on Tatjana Bibik and Olga Golovanova. 25 minutes later, the match was poised for a one-match play-off for the European title. With a 21-14, 21-14 win for the Danes. Helle Neilsen and Marie Ropke were given the opportunity to win the final rubber for Denmark. Prokopenko and Sorokina stood in the their way, after a tight 21-17 victory for the Danish. Russia then had a chance to win the second game, at 17-20. The Danes played five sensational points to take the game 22-20 and win the European title for Denmark, by 3 matches to 2.

In the 3^rd/4^th playoff, Germany easily defeated the Netherlands 3-0. Wins for Schenk over Stolzenbach, for Overzier and Marinello and for Karin Schnaase allowed Germany to qualify for the Uber Cup as the 3^rd placed European side.

Men’s Event

Peter Gade made his second appearance in the competition, after not being needed until the semi final stage. Europe’s #1 would play Przemyslaw Wacha in the opening match of the men’s final against Poland. Gade edged a tight opening game 21-16, the second game was another tight affair but Gade went from trailing 9-7 to lead 13-9 with a six point run and never looked back, taking the second game 21-17 and put Denmark 1-0 in the match.

Boe and Mogensen would play the Polish heroes of the semi final, Cwalina and Logosz. The Poles took a 15-12 lead in the opening game, before capitulating and conceding 9 straight points to gift the game to Boe and Mogensen. The second game was a similar story, Boe and Mogensen led 10-8 before the Poles allowed another 9 point run and gifted the second game and Denmark a 2-0 lead in the match.

Jan O Jorgensen had the opportunity to clinch the European title, with a win over Hubert Pazcek. Jorgensen took the opening game after some scoring consecutive points on a number of occasions to stretch out a lead before winning the opening game, 21-14. The second game started a lot tighter, with Pazcek leading 11-10 at the interval. Jorgensen responded with a 7-point run to take a 17-11 lead, it was a lead he was never going to give up and clinched the match and Denmark’s all important third match, 21-14, 21-13.

In the 3^rd/4^th playoff for a place in the Thomas Cup, Germany won 3-1 over Ukraine. Zweibler opened the match with a win over Zavadsky 21-16, 27-25. Dieter Domke suffered a three-game defeat over Atrashchenkov to level the match up, before Marcel Reuter regained Germany’s advantage with a straightforward win over Konov. Hopp and Scholetter completed the victory with a come from behind victory over Druzchenko and Atrashchenkov.

Sunday’s Results