Wednesday, August 25, 2010

SINGAPORE CHEER

Peter Hoeg Gade will focus on his opponents one at a time as he tries to land the coveted world title at the World Championships in Paris.

The number two seed had a stroll in the humid conditions, defeating Darval Paiola of Brazil with relative ease, winning 21-10.21-7 in just 23 minutes.

Gade was in his usual confident self on the court and cut out the frills in his businesslike approach to win the match.

And although buoyed by the fact that Sony Dwi Kuncoro is one less hurdle, following the Indonesian’s withdrawal due to injury, the cool Dane however preferred to be conservative when asked if his chances of landing the title were good.

“No doubt the bottom half looks open but there are other good players that can pose a lot of problems,” said Gade.

“It will be foolhardy to think that I will breeze through. Hence I rather be cautious then be overconfident.”

Top seed Wang Yihan of China opened her campaign with a 21-12,21-19 win over Thailand’s Porntip Buranaprasentsuk in just 33 minutes.

Wang was in her element in the first set but let her guard down in the second. However she did enough to win in two sets and looked sharp when in control.

In the men’s doubles, Singpore’s Hendri Kurniawan Saputra/Hendra Wijaya set ninth seeds Alven Chandra Yullianto and Hendra Aprida Gunawan paking with a 21-15,21-15 scoreline.

With the defeat of the Indonesians, three seeds in the men’s doubles have already been sent packing as Malaysia’s Choong Tan Fook/Lee Wan Wah and USA’s Tony Gunawan/Howard Bach were first round casualties on Monday.

Singapore’s fairytale continued as their mixed doubles pair stepped onto the court to register another major upset.

Chayut Triyachart and Lei Yao defeated the third seeds Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Zieba of Poland who had won two Super Series events in their career, 21-13,16-21,21-14.

The Singaporeans will take on India’s crack team of V. Diju and Jwala Gutta stormed into the third round beating Malaysia’s Peng Soon Chan and Liu Ying Goh 21-19, 21.

After their hard fought three game win over England’s Chris Adcock and Gabriella White on the opening day, the win over the Malaysian pair was like a walk in the park.

Even though the score line did seem as if the Indians enjoyed court supremacy, Diju felt it was a hard fought win. “We were leading in the first game before they turned the momentum and led with a three point lead before we kind of steadied ourselves,” said a highly relieved Diju.