Finals day 2014, 05-03-2014

Day 5 started with the semi finals of the women's singles. It was a bit disappointing to see that the Malaysian Ying Ying Lee didn't take her great form from yesterday into today. On the other hand the Chinese Ming Chun Chen played very well to beat the Malaysian 21-7, 21-8. On the other court two Chinese girls were really making a good match of the other semi final, in the end 2nd seed Jinjing Qin beat her opponent Xiaoxin Chen 21-14, 21-19.

Dutch 1st seed Mark Caljouw had a lot of support from the crowd during his men's single semi final. He won the first set, but after that the chinese changed his game and Mark was unable to keep up with his Chinese opponent. 5/8 seeded Yuqi Shi eventually won 16-21, 21-7, 21-14. The other semi final between the chinese 5/8 seeded Junpeng Zhao and unseeded Guipu Lin also ended in a (minor) upset. Junpeng Zhao won a close first set, but in the second and third set Guipu Lin was the the better player on the day. 19-21, 21-12, 21-12.

On to the men's doubles. The Sri Lanka pair of Sachin Dias-Buwaneka Goonethellike looked tired after yesterdays two three set battles. The German first seeds Marvin Seidel-Johannes Pistorius kept their cool and after losing the first set 19-21 came back strong to take the second and third set 21-17, 21-10. On the other court Dutch hopes Alex Vlaar-Ruben Jille were playing an thrilling match against Hong Kong's Yonny Chung-Shing Choi Yeung. After winning the first set 21-14, the Hong Kong pair came back strong in the second set, 11-21. The third set was close all the time, but in the end the Hong Kong pair were able to take it 21-19.

In the Women's doubles unseeded Dutch pair Imke van der Aar - Tamara van der Hoeven didn't get off to a good start against first seeded Croatian pair Katarina Galenic - Maja Pavlinic. They lost the first set 21-12, and were trailing 15-8 when they really got their game going. They fught back to 18 all, but it wasn't enough as the Croatian pair took the 2nd set and the match 21-19. On the other court the Indonesian pair of Marsheilla Gischa Islami-Rahmadhani Purti fought back from slow starts in both sets to leading towards the end. In the end prevailing in 21-19, 21-19. Both exciting women's doubles matches worth watching!

After a short break it was time for the finals. Two chances for Dutch succes. Starting with the mixed doubles, the hopes were high for Alex Vlaar and Cheryl Seinen to win the Yonex Dutch Junior title. They tried their best, but the Hong Kong combination of Yonny Cheung - Tsz Yau Ng proved to be to strong, winning 21-15, 21-13.

Time for the Chinese to decide who would be the winners of The Yonex Dutch junior 2014 singles titles. The men's and women's singles showed great skill and fighting spirit, in two really good matches. In the mens's singles Guipu Lin beat the Asian junior champion Yuqi Shi in two sets 21-14, 21-17. In the women's singles 2nd seeded Jinjing Qin didn't allow her compatriot Ming Chun Chen to upset her as she won 21-12, 21-16.

The last matches were the men's and women's doubles. In the Men's doubles Alex vlaar was hoping to do one better than his second place in teh mixed doubles. He and his partner Ruben Jille played well, but the German 1st seeds Marvin Seidel-Johannes Pistorius took control halfway the first set to win it 21-15. In the second set it was close all the way till the end. It could go both ways, but as so often when it gets close, the Germans won it 22-20. In the women's doubles the Croatian first seeds Katarina Galenic-Maja Pavlinic took the first set 21-17 against Indonesians Marsheilla Gischa Islami-Rahmadhani Hastiyanti Putri before the Indonesians came back supported by the cheers of their fans in the crowd to win the second and third set 21-18, 21-18.

That concludes another week of world class junior badminton. In the end the Chinese took the singles titles, as more or less expected. We hope to see the chinese team again next year, and hopefully they will bring their doubles players as well.

Hope to see everyone again next year for the Yonex Duthc Junior 2015 form 25 Febrauay - 1st March.