VICTOR KOREA OPEN Day 2 - ‘Mixed’ Blessings for China

Wednesday, 13 January 2010 12:55

Korea’s headline mixed doubles pair of Lee Yong Dae / Lee Hyo Jung exited in the first round of the 2010 Victor Korea Open Super Series while He Hanbin / Yu Yang weathered their storm to advance to the second round.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent, live in Seoul. Photos: Yves Lacroix, BadmintonPhoto (live)

The Korea Open has not been good to top seeds in mixed doubles. Only once since 2004 has the top seed survived the first two rounds. Today was no exception as two-time defending champions Lee Yong Dae / Lee Hyo Jung were unable to cope with the brand new partnership of Zhang Yawen and Tao Jiaming (pictured).

Tao had his first shot at playing the Olympic champions on home ground last April when he and Ma Jin came up short at the Badminton Asia Championships in Suwon. However, he and Zhang did not miss a beat and opened up a huge lead to take the first game 21-13, then moved out to an 11-9 lead in the second.

Lee/Lee came back from the break to go on the defensive and thrill the crowd, creeping up to 10-11 but they couldn’t get the errors under control and the Chinese continued to lead, extending the margin to 16-11 and finally taking the match 21-16.

Earlier, another Chinese pair had their shot at knocking off some heavy favourites but Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei came up short against World Champion Danes Thomas Laybourn / Kamilla Rytter Juhl (pictured), who held on to win 22-20, 15-21, 21-17.

A couple of Lee Yong Dae’s former partners had also looked ready to take a mixed doubles upset as Shin Baek Cheol / Yoo Hyun Young came very close to taking All England champions He Hanbin / Yu Yang to three games. After dropping the first, the Koreans maintained the upper hand in the second game and Shin Baek Cheol punctuated a couple of rallies with thrilling smashes to put the Koreans ahead 20-17 while Yoo Hyun Young executed some net mastery. The Koreans couldn’t find the lines they needed to finish the game and the Chinese managed to level at 20-all. A couple of misjudgements later, the Chinese had scraped by with the 21-15, 22-20 victory.

The other successful upset in the mixed doubles came when Fang Chieh Min / Wang Pei Rong dispatched Hong Kong Open champions Mateusiak/Kostiuczyk of Poland in three games. Fang caused an upset in the men’s doubles, too, as he and Lee Sheng Mu got the better of Malaysia’s only pair Gan/Tan in two games.

For complete results from Day 2 of the 2010 Victor Korea Open Super Series, CLICK HERE

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