Day 2, 01-03-2012
Day two, was a stunning day. This morning started with the first seeded Kalle Koljonen from Finland. His first men’s singles match was against Kho Henrikho Wibowo (Indonesia). Koljonen surprised a lot of players and coaches by winning so easily in two games. Wibowo could not gain a lot of momentum, because he was playing to defensive. Koljonen hit the ground running, and will be seen again tomorrow at 2:50 PM, playing his second men’s singles versus Fabian Roth from Germany.
·Furthermore in men’s singles we have seen two Indonesian players; Megananda, and Indonesia’s Top men’s singles player in this tournament, ·Mahbub. Both players seem to be in good shape and can be seen as favorites for reaching the final or even winning the title back here in Haarlem. Chun Hei Tam(HK) has had a walkover in his second round, but can also be seen as favorite. He already reached the semi finals last year and managed to get through to the fourth round on the latest BWF World Junior Championships, where he beat Victor Axelsen in the team event. Malaysia’s men’s singles hope Joo Ven Soong, has only played his easy first round yet, but we expect a lot from him.
The men’s double’s draw saw some tough openening round matches, because the seeding was done by the new world junior ranking, and some couples have not played many ranking tournaments. Two first round matches were between Indonesia and Malaysia. Those matches proved to that the Asian players can really play doubles. Aldiartama/Subaktiar won their match against the Malaysians Ong and Tan. In a forty-four minutes long Men’s double, both couples showed their skill and with another draw it is possible they would have met each other in the finals. The other Indonesia-Malaysia battle was possibly the match of the day. ·The Malaysian singles players Soo and Soong eventually lost to Faisal and Rhoma from Indonesia. After splitting the fist to sets 24-22, 19-21 the Indonesians fought back from 16-20 to win the 3th set 26-24!
It feels like the tournament has really started. The matches are getting longer, they are becoming more exciting and the quality of the matches is getting even higher. One of the last matches was most exciting, as Germany’s couple Peng/Schanzler played their first round against Carvalho/Karkaus. Finally after 44 minutes Peng and Schanzler won with 30-29 in the third game. Both teams were supporting their players and all the noise made sure the players on all four courts could not here themselves play. The atmosphere here is great let’s see what tomorrow brings, follow us on the LiveScore or join us here in Haarlem!