BELGIAN INT’L SF - Two Teens Try for Two

The organizers of the Belgian International lured some strong West-European delegations to their tournament, located in the centre of Europe. It’s especially Belgium’s long time rival the Netherlands that was able to impress so far with six representatives in the semi-finals. But only two of them succeeded in making it to the final. Meanwhile, the men's singles is the only final that will feature neither Misaki Matsutomo (pictured) nor Marcus Ellis as each youngster earned a spot in two of Sunday's contests.

By Elm Vandevorst, Badzine Correspondent live in Mechelen. Photos: BadmintonPhoto (archives)

One of those Dutch contestants who will still be in action on Sunday is Yao Jie in the women’s singles. The former top ten player is still recovering from a knee injury and tries to get back to the top by participating in some smaller tournaments.

“I try to play without thinking about my injury and get more confident each tournament,” says Yao. “It feels very awkward to have two matches a day, as I was used to playing only one a day at the Super Series.”

Her opponent is the semi-final was Helen Davies from England and the Chinese-born veteran took the match in straight games 21-19, 21-13. In the other semi-final, 17-year old Misaki Matsutomo was too strong for 4th seeded shuttler Susan Egelstaff from Scotland. Although the Japanese girl fell a game behind, she still won 13-21, 21-12, 21-8.

Matsutomo’s semi-final success did not end there, however. She and her 19-year-old compatriot Ayaka Takahashi teamed up in the women’s doubles to crush their Dutch rivals Baring/Muskens in the first game, after which they lost the second, but prevailed 21-9, 11-21, 21-18 in the end. Their opponents in the final will be the brand new pairing of Emma Mason and Samantha Ward. These two also had to overcome some Dutch competitors - in their case, the silver medallists from the recent European Junior Championships Piek/Tabeling. Although this is their first tournament together, the English- Scottish combination easily won 21-15, 21-16.

To the delight of the home crowd, there was a victory for the experienced Belgian mixed doubles duo Wouter Claes / Nathalie Descamps, who beat Mason/Ellis 21-17, 21-19.

“I’m thrilled with this win and even more with the way we played, said Wouter after the match. “If the crowd will support us like they did today, we have a good chance to claim a title.” But Heather Olver and Marcus Ellis will be stiff competition. The English pair surprised their adversaries, and top seeds, Van Dooremalen/Bosch in three games 21-14, 19-21, 21-19.

Marcus Ellis (pictured above) is the other player who has to play twice at Sunday, as he was also able to qualify for the men’s doubles final together with Peter Mills. Their coach decided to put the two together in the beginning of the season. The Englishmen took an early 7-0 lead against Dutch opponents Jorrit De Ruiter / Dave Khodabux and converted their first game point 21-16. In the second game, both teams were evenly matched, but in the end Ellis / Mills triumphed 22-20. But Ruud Bosch and Koen Ridder (pictured) can take revenge for the defeat of their Dutch compatriots. The top seeds needed just half an hour to trash Andrew Ellis / Dean George 21-15, 21-13.

Being victorious two years ago, second seed Marc Zwiebler is back for more at this year’s edition. The German shuttler needed exactly one hour to beat Rune Ulsing from Denmark 21-19, 15-21, 21-17. But another player representing Denmark can still stand in his way. Christian Lind Thomsen took a lead in both games against home player Yuhan Tan and never gave it away.

“I’m very ambitious and set a goal to be somewhere around the 30th place on the world ranking by the end of the season,” said Lind Thomsen. “I’m totally focusing on badminton this season and hopefully it will pay off.”

For complete semi-final results from the 2009 Yonex Belgian International, please CLICK HERE

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