EUROPEANS – Germany and Russia go the distance!!

Quarter finals day at the Echo Arena in Liverpool and all eyes were on court 1 as the home English team attempted to book their place in tomorrow’s semi finals. Meanwhile at the opposite end of the arena Germany and Russia played out the match of the day which went right down to the wire.
By Mark Phelan. Photos: badmintonphoto.com (Live in Liverpool)


All the talk around the fantastic Echo Arena on quarter finals day was centred on England and their attempt to take another step in their efforts to make Sunday’s final at the European Team Championships. However, the most open match of the day was always going to be Germany V Russia and as predicted it lived up to its billing as Russia came through in the final women’s doubles match to win 3-2.
The match turned out to be a doubles versus singles game as Germany’s superior singles capabilities were always going to be to strong for Russia. The opening match went the way of the Russians as Valeria Sorokina and Alexander Nikolaenko took little time in beating Birgit Overzier and Johannes Schoettler 21-11, 21-13. The Germans then bounced back to take both the men’s and women’s singles as the cow bells rang around the stadium from the boisterous German support. Marc Zwiebler was first to level the overall match as he beat Vladimir Malkov 21-9 21-13 and Juliane Schenk followed with a 21-14 21-19 win over Ella Diehl to give the Germans a 2-1 match lead. Alexander Nikolaenko and Vitaly Durkin levelled the match in a tight men’s doubles game as they beat Ingo Kindervater and Michael Fuchs 21-17 21-19. Russia completed the 3-2 win when experienced women’s doubles pair of Valeria Sorokina and Nina Vislova beat the crack pairing of Xu Huaiwen and Birgit Overzier to book their place in tomorrows semi final.


The Russian will now meet Denmark in the semi final as the tournament favourites were taken to the fourth game before finally seeing off a very young French team. Jan O Jorgensen started well for Denmark by beating Brice Leverdez 21-13 21-14. France bounced back in the women’s singles as world number 5 Pi Hongyan defeated Nanna Brosolat Jensen 21-9 21-9. Brosolat Jensen appeared disappointed after the game but her epic wins earlier in the week have helped the Danish team reach this stage and she can, without doubt, be proud of her weeks work to date. Denmark finished off a professional days work with wins in the men’s and women’s doubles as Boe and Mogensen beat Careme and Labar 21-16, 21-11 and Ropke and Rasmussen defeated Choinet and Rahmawati 21-12 21-13.


England defeated Ukraine on the TV court 3-1 with wins in the men’s doubles, men’s singles (Andrew Smith, pictured here had to go all the way to three games) and mixed doubles. Andrew Smith was taken to three sets in his singles match to give England a valuable 2-0 lead before Larissa Griga consigned Liz Cann to her second defeat in two days in straight sets 21-15 21-19. England wrapped up the match with a win in the men’s doubles with an easy 21-14 21-12 win.
Poland continued their march to a medal with a 3-1 win over The Netherlands. Wacha struggled in three sets against Eric Pang which proved to be the turning point in an eventful match. Polands lack of competitiveness is sure to be their Achilles heel if they are to secure a medal as yet again they failed to deliver in the women’s individual event.