13th WUC Badminton – Day 2 of the Individual Events

CORDOBA – This second day of the individual events at the 13^th WUC Badminton started with a terrible first hour for the seeded teams in mixed doubles for their third round matches. Chi-Ling Wang/Ti-Jung Wu (TPE – N°1 – world N°77) lost to the Thais Sitthikom Thammasin/Natcha Sangchote 25/23; 21/13 offering the players from Thailand a spot in the ¼ finals. Few minutes later it’s the seed N°3 Lamsfuss/Volkmann (GER) who saw their tournament end against the pair from Malaysia Vountus/Meng 21/12; 21/15. The afternoon session was devoted to ¼ finals and saw Malaysia and China both qualify two pairs for the semi-finals. On the top of the bracket Tang/Liu (CHN – N°8) beat Sitthikom Thammasin/Natcha Sangchote (THA) and will face Malaysia’s Vountus/Meng in the semi-finals after the Malaysian pair defeated Kim/Kang (KOR). On the bottom of the bracket Zhang/Ou (CHN) will face the number 2 seed Lufti/Fei Cho Soong (MAS) today for a spot in the final of this 13^th World University Badminton Championship.

In the women’s singles tournament, the third round saw only one surprise take place with the elimination of the seed N°8 Riya Pillai (IND) against Amelia A. Anscelly (MAS) on the impressive score of 21/8; 21/13.  During the afternoon session, China ensured a spot in the final by qualifying two women in the semi-final of the upper bracket. Indeed Xin Liu (CHN – N°1 – world n°20) defeated Hung (TPE – N°5) 21/18 21/15 and will face Xiaojia Chen (CHN – former world N°22) who defeated the last European player still in competition in the women’s singles, Switzerland’s Sabrina Jaquet (N°3 – world n°50) in three games. In the lower bracket, Pay Yu-Po (TPE – N°2 – world n°37) will face the ¼ final surprise, Japan’s Shiomda who defeated Kim (KOR – N°4 – world n°75) in three games 17/21; 21/14; 21/18.

In the men’s singles tournament, Japan’s Nishimoto (N°7) lost to Korea’s Choi 21/13; 21/17 and was the only seed to fall in the third round though Poland’s Dziolko (N°8) had to struggle until the last set – won 22/20 – against Chahal (IND) to obtain his spot in the ¼ finals. The afternoon’s quarterfinals saw Hsu (TPE – N°1 – world n°25) beat Choi (KOR) to ensure his spot in the semi-finals where he will face Malaysia’s Iskandar (N°5) who eliminated seed N°4 Rogalski from Poland in two games 21/8 and 21/6. Malaysia places two players in the semi-finals with Arif – Iskandar’s double partner – beating Lee (KOR) 21/17; 21/12. Iskandar will face Huan Gao (CHN – N°2 – world n°53) after Gao’s victory over Dziolko (POL – N°8) 21/19; 21/11.

The third round of the women’s doubles saw two seeds lost their spot in the tournament. The most surprising upset came from the Korean pair Kang/Kim beating the N°1 seed Amelia A. Anscelly/Fei Cho Soong (MAS – world N°25) in what happened to be a strange day for Anscelly performing well in the women’s singles where she was not expected but losing in the women’s doubles as first seed. Shortly later, the Thai pair Chayanit Chaladchalam/Natcha Sangchote (N°7) was defeated by another Korean pair Han/Lim who made their way to the quarter finals. The semi-finals will see four countries competing for two spots in the final. Kim/Kang (KOR) made their way to the semi-finals by defeating seed n°8 Ichimaru/Tanaka (JPN) while Shinoda/Uratani (JPN) took the best on the other Korean pair Han/Lim. On the lower bracket Hsieh/Wu (TPE) defeated Chow/Lee (MAS) and will face Tang/Ou (CHN – N°2 – world n°72) who defeated Hsu/Pai (TPE – N°5). A great day for Ou, who also qualified for the semi-finals in the mixed doubles with Zhang.

In the men’s doubles, three seeded pairs lost during the third round. The first surprise came from Tseng/Wang (TPE) who beat Japan’s Matsui/Miura (N°6) in a severe 21/18; 21/11. Shortly later, another pair from Taipei Hang/Liu (N°5) faced a much less pleasant ending, losing against Malaysia’s Arif/Iskandar 18/21; 21/17; 21/11, an excellent result for the two specialists of singles – respectively world n°57 and n°94. Finally in the last match of the morning session, Choi/Kang (KOR – N°2 – world N°74) lost to another Malaysian pair composed of Vountus/Jagdish who advanced to quarter finals. The quarter finals were the stage of a new fantastic performance of Iskandar and Arif, both of them having shortly before their double match qualified for the semi-finals of the singles tournament to finally eliminate seed n°3 Holzer/Lamsfuss (GER) 21/17; 21/19. They will not face their fellow countrymen Vountus/Jagdish, the latter having been defeated by the pair of Chinese Taipei Tseng/Wang in three games. On the upper part of the bracket the last remaining seed and last European representatives of the event, N°1, Poland’s Łukasz Moreń/ Wojciech Szkudlarczyk (world N°29) have been literally stormed by China’s Guo/Zhang 21/12; 21/11.

Today, 29 July, will be the last day of competition with all semi-finals and finals.

RESULTS

Complete results can be found here.

(Source: Julien Buhajezuk, Executive Assistant WUC)