YONEX ALL ENGLAND Qualif – Tough battles already

The much anticipated greatest badminton show on earth kicked off this morning in Birmingham, England as the majority of the worlds best shuttlers descended on England’s second city with just one thing on their minds, to be crowned the All England Champion and in doing so write their name into the badminton history books. England got off to the worst possible start as they lost both their fancied men’s singles qualification hopefuls in Rajiv Ouseph and Carl Baxter but Jill Pittard gave the home crowd something to cheer about as she came through women’s singles qualification to join Elizabeth Cann in the main draw tomorrow.

By Mark Phelan (Live) Photos: badmintonphoto.com (Live in Birmingham)

Recently crowned English national champion, Rajiv Ouseph was the first major casualty on qualification day at the All England’s as he went down in three sets to Ireland’s Scott Evans. Evans, spurred on by a vocal Irish contingent in the crowd, played some very controlled and mature badminton to beat Ouseph in what was revenge for his defeat in the Irish International Final back in December 2008. Evans was unable to build on that win as he subsequently fell at the hands of India’s Anand Pawar in three sets. Pawar advances to the main draw where he will face off against Sony Dwi Kuncora of Indonesia tomorrow.

India had double reason to celebrate when Anup Sridhar completed the difficult task of beating two Malaysians to secure his first round ticket. France’s Brice Leverdez (photo) also had reason to joyful on his maiden trip to the All England’s. The French number one encounter traffic in the shape of Kestitus Navickas as the promising Lithuanian took the opening set to 18 but Leverdez fought back to take the match with a 21-17 21-17 in the second and third.
In the bottom half of qualification, China’s Gong Weijie overcame stiff opposition to claim a first round spot in a day that saw 10 of the 12 men’s singles matches go to three sets.

In the women’s singles four different nationalities qualified for tomorrow’s main draw with Europe claiming 3 of the four spots. Linda Zechiri of Bulgaria will take her spot as qualifier number 1 after two tough three set battles against England’s Nicola Cerfontyne and Hsiao Huan Chen of Taipai. The relief for the Bulgarian was audible as she screamed with joy on taking match point on court number four.
Nanna Brosolat Jensen of Denmark was rarely forced to shift out of second gear in qualification section number four as she swiftly ended the hopes of American Lauren Todt and English hope Rachel Howard both in straight sets. Jensen will now face Scotland’s Susan Hughes in tomorrow’s first round proper.


Jill Pittard (photo) was one of only a few rays of light on qualification day for England as the Land Rover engineer claimed her first round berth in easy fashion sending Anu Nieminen and Diana Dimova on early flights home. The fourth qualifier from the women’s singles was Korean shuttler Soo Young Jang. After beating Shao Chieh Cheng in the first round her qualification efforts were halved as fellow Korean Youn Joo Bae was forced to retire so was unable to take her place in the final of section three of qualification.

In the men’s doubles there was further disappointment for the home nation as none of the English pairs managed to light up the arena. It was China’a day in this discipline as the combinations of He Hanbin/Sun Junjie and Guo Zhendong/Xu Chen were effortless in their relentless march to the main draw. Joining them in tomorrow’s draw will be Japanese duo of Hayakawa/Kazuno after they beat Malaysian pair Abdul Latif/Chan in three sets 19-21 23-21 21-17. The final match on qualifying day witnessed Danish success as Mikkel Delbo Larsen and Rasmus Bonde dealt another blow to British hopes as they sent Andrew Bowman and Martyn Lewis packing in three.


Andrew Ellis and Sarah Bok (main article photo) finally gave the English fans something to get vocal about as, after being promoted from the reserves, they fought bravely to take a deserved place in the first round proper of the mixed doubles tomorrow. The combination of Overzier/Schoettler were intent on making life hard for themselves as they lost the first set to 8 against Maz Agathangelou and Robin Midleton. In typical German style they fought back and managed to close out the game in three as they took the second and third sets 22-20 24-22 in a match that had the majority of the crowd transfixed and sometimes bemused.

The women’s doubles qualification saw all 4 remaining pairs promoted to the main draw which means for the first time in recent super series history there will be a full complement of 32 pairs taking to the courts in the first round which is sure to please the organisers. Cast your mind back to the China open where this particular competition had pairs get free rides right through to the quarter finals.