A day at the Aviva Open - Singapore Super Series (Part II)
Next up was the men's & women's singles. Chinese dominance in the women's singles can't be denied, coz there was hardly any non-chinese in the quarters, save for a danish chick called Tina Rasmussen. She gave Xie Xingfang a good fight, stretching her to a 3-setter, but I suspect that she hasn't switched out from 2nd gear in the whole match. I actually spotted chia chi's name on the website last night, and I thought that she was still in the quarters, so I waited at the warm up area to say hello. She wasn't there obviously, but my effort wasn't completely drained either, coz I was actually sitting just 2m away from all the players! haha maybe someone can imagine how stupid I had looked then, gushing like a small kid when a famous player walks past. Some of the faces I recognized was Peter Gade, Kenneth Johanssen (who played an excellent 3-setter match, won by Gade after he sped up his game towards the end, though temper did flare up and resulted in a yellow card for Kenneth midway thru), Lin Dan, Xie Xingfang, Pi Hongyan, etc etc.
Men's singles is always an exciting event, even more so if Taufik still remains in the draw. He was kicked out by Gade the day before though, and with it went my chance of seeing his legendary backhand =( Most exciting match was reserved, fittingly, for the final match of the day, Boonsak vs Lin Dan. In the 1st game Lin dan was evidently taking it slow, and predictably lost it. He took control of the 2nd game, and it went on to a 3rd set. Boonsak, the tricky player he is, matched Lin Dan point for point with his consistent display of cross court netting & stretching him left & right. Lin Dan responded with his trademark powerful overhead smash, & the game went into a tiebreaker. Owing to a mishit by Lin in the penultimate pt, Boonsak finally finished the game as winner after Lin Dan hit out a drive!
Most of my attention was focused on the men's doubles game of course, bcoz my idols were playing today. Candra & Tony looked really relaxed and chatted with indo fans, altho with my limited indo I really doubt my ability to strike up a meaningful conversation =( that didn't diminish my support for them obviously, and I'd definitely pick up my courage to ask them for their autograph tmr! That aside, they were playing against a korean pair, and Candra looked solid throughout, even taking over the role of net play normally done by Tony. Candra's drive shots has got to be the best in the circuit, even after his retirement from national team. the Koreans couldn't find their way thru him, and had to switch target to Tony. He wasn't as good as before when he could turn the match ard with the flick of his wrist, but he was still a joy to watch, contributing key net plays, although sometimes his defence did fail him, unlike candra's impregnable armor. Nevertheless, the true hallmark of a champion is that you can play badly and still beat most pairs in the world, and that is definitely what Tony/Candra are. No fuss, & 2 sets later, they are in the semis! Markis kido & hendra setiawan from indo also advanced after thrashing the m'sian pair who beat KKK & TBH, their teammate & 3 times super series champ, earlier. Indo has 2 pair in the semi, m'sia has 1 in choong tan fook/lee wan wah, & the other pair is Cai Yun/Fu Hai Feng of China.
I guess there's no need to mention women's doubles at all. As always, Chinese team sent a dozen participants in, and took probably 6 out of 8 spots in the quarters, & after rooting out the other 2 intruder pairs, it's an all chinese affair again. same boring story huuaaaahhhhh. Oh yeah perhaps it's better to mention the atmosphere created by the indo fans inside. It was really fantastic as we were the most opinionated crowd, and ended up influencing other neutral fans to support whoever we were supporting as well. Like in the case when we routed for Boonsak by shouting, 'boonsak, jia you!' haha it seems like we indos are the ABC (anyone but china) group.
Will update more later, so keep checkin' back for more baddie posts!
Men's singles is always an exciting event, even more so if Taufik still remains in the draw. He was kicked out by Gade the day before though, and with it went my chance of seeing his legendary backhand =( Most exciting match was reserved, fittingly, for the final match of the day, Boonsak vs Lin Dan. In the 1st game Lin dan was evidently taking it slow, and predictably lost it. He took control of the 2nd game, and it went on to a 3rd set. Boonsak, the tricky player he is, matched Lin Dan point for point with his consistent display of cross court netting & stretching him left & right. Lin Dan responded with his trademark powerful overhead smash, & the game went into a tiebreaker. Owing to a mishit by Lin in the penultimate pt, Boonsak finally finished the game as winner after Lin Dan hit out a drive!
Most of my attention was focused on the men's doubles game of course, bcoz my idols were playing today. Candra & Tony looked really relaxed and chatted with indo fans, altho with my limited indo I really doubt my ability to strike up a meaningful conversation =( that didn't diminish my support for them obviously, and I'd definitely pick up my courage to ask them for their autograph tmr! That aside, they were playing against a korean pair, and Candra looked solid throughout, even taking over the role of net play normally done by Tony. Candra's drive shots has got to be the best in the circuit, even after his retirement from national team. the Koreans couldn't find their way thru him, and had to switch target to Tony. He wasn't as good as before when he could turn the match ard with the flick of his wrist, but he was still a joy to watch, contributing key net plays, although sometimes his defence did fail him, unlike candra's impregnable armor. Nevertheless, the true hallmark of a champion is that you can play badly and still beat most pairs in the world, and that is definitely what Tony/Candra are. No fuss, & 2 sets later, they are in the semis! Markis kido & hendra setiawan from indo also advanced after thrashing the m'sian pair who beat KKK & TBH, their teammate & 3 times super series champ, earlier. Indo has 2 pair in the semi, m'sia has 1 in choong tan fook/lee wan wah, & the other pair is Cai Yun/Fu Hai Feng of China.
I guess there's no need to mention women's doubles at all. As always, Chinese team sent a dozen participants in, and took probably 6 out of 8 spots in the quarters, & after rooting out the other 2 intruder pairs, it's an all chinese affair again. same boring story huuaaaahhhhh. Oh yeah perhaps it's better to mention the atmosphere created by the indo fans inside. It was really fantastic as we were the most opinionated crowd, and ended up influencing other neutral fans to support whoever we were supporting as well. Like in the case when we routed for Boonsak by shouting, 'boonsak, jia you!' haha it seems like we indos are the ABC (anyone but china) group.
Will update more later, so keep checkin' back for more baddie posts!
posted by leonhart @ 3:33 AM
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