Seeds March to Quarters at Skycity NZ Badminton Open

15-19 April 2014, North Shore Events Centre

17 April 2014

For immediate release from the SKYCITY Badminton NZ Open, for further information visit www.nzbadmintonopen.com

TOP SEEDS CONTINUE MARCH TO QUARTER FINALS AT SKYCITY NZ BADMINTON OPEN

Top seeds dominated in this morning’s 3rd round action at the SKYCITY NZ Badminton Open at the North Shore Events Centre in a rain and windswept Auckland, with the favoured players for the most part progressing safely through to tonight’s quarterfinals.

Men’s Singles top seed Jen Hao Hsu (Chinese Taipei) took on young New Zealander Dylan Soedjasa and while he prevailed, the Kiwi once again showed his potential, with Hsu winning in two hard fought games, 21-10, 21-14.

19 year old Soedjasa spoke after the match of a desire to play against opponents of a higher standard on a more regular basis.

“I am tired, he made me work a lot for the points and he made me make some unforced errors but other than that there were some good rallies. He is quite fit and I had to try and keep up with his speed and endurance, I could do it for a while but he pulled away at the end.

“I wish I could play a few more of these sorts of games, it really does help with my badminton.”

The Women’s Singles quarterfinals will feature 3 of the 4 top seeds and none have been troubled so far in the SKYCITY sponsored Grand Prix tournament, all progressing to this stage of the tournament without dropping a game.

Exceptions to the otherwise strong performances from the leading seeds saw Men’s Singles number 14 seed Kuei Chun Shih (Chinese Taipei) knock out the second Sourabh Varmaseed (India) 21-18 21-15.

In the Men’s Doubles, the pairing featuring former world number one singles player Kien Keat Koo and his new partner Pakkawat Vilailak (Malaysia) were defeated by Japanese pairing Yuya Komatsuzaki and Hiroki Takeuchi 21-16 21-17.

The bad weather was perhaps an omen for the Kiwis with Jo Wu joining Soedjasa in going down in the 3rd round of the Men’s Singles, Oliver Leydon-Davis and Susannah Leydon-Davis bowing out in the Mixed Doubles and then Leydon-Davis and Kevin Dennerly-Minturn losing in the Men’s Doubles.

“That wasn’t quite the performance we were relooking for, the general speed of things I think, we were not quick enough, especially early on and we were under the pump the whole way,” said Oliver Leydon-Davis. “That really is not what we were looking for, especially on home soil.”

Dennerly-Minturn was also ruing a missed opportunity.

“They are a good pair and a fast pair, we made a few mistakes, especially defensively weren’t as good as needed to be, we had some good rallies but didn’t turn them into points enough of the time. The left and right combination creates a few more angles on court and they did it pretty well.

“This is a world class event here though at the SKYCITY NZ Open, even if it isn’t the biggest tournament in the world, it is run like the biggest in the world and has great support, I recommend anyone to come down and see some world class badminton for sure.”

Oliver and Susannah Leydon-Davis knew they were up against it in the Mixed Doubles against former world number 1 doubles player Kien Keat Koo (Malaysia), both were hugely disappointed not to play at their best.

“It was a big challenge and it was disappointing to come out of the game like that but that is one of those things,” said 21 year old Susannah. “We had a great start in the second and took control of the game but towards the end they took control back and were a bit smarter, and we didn’t change the game as fast as we needed to.”

Oliver was equally down about a chance that went begging with the Waikato pair at one point leading 15 - 8 in the second game.

“Like Susannah said they changed their game midway through the second and we couldn’t react to it but they are a classy pair and while it was disappointing not to close it we will put this one down to experience and next time maybe we can close the game out.”

That leaves Women’s Doubles as the only event with a New Zealand presence heading into tonight’s quarter-finals. Maria Mata Masinipeni pairs up with Millicent Wiranto (Indonesia) while Kritteka Gregory and Susannah Leydon-Davis play Chinese Taipei pair Szu Yu Chen and Chi Ya Cheng in the quarterfinals.

Quarterfinals night is always a great night, with exciting clashes in all events. Highlights in a full programme across all events in tonight’s session at the North Shore Events Centre include:

• 5.30pm Millicent Wiranto (Indonesia) might be the dark horse in the Women’s Singles field, the number 2 seed is yet to drop a game and plays Japan’s Ayumi Mine

• 5.50pm. Top seed in the Men’s Singles Jen Hao Hsu (Chinese Taipei), plays 7th seed and countryman Chia-Hsin Wan – can anyone challenge

• 6.10pm. They won a titanic battle in round 1 and then eliminated the NZ 7th seeds this morning, can Takuto Inoue and Yuki Kaneko (Japan) upset the top seeds in the Men’s Doubles?

• 6.30pm. He is a former world number 1 ranked doubles player and is playing like it. Kien Keat Koo and partner Hui Lin Ng (Malaysia) take on one of the form combinations in 5th seeded Irfan Fadhilah and Emanuelle Widiaia (Indonesia) in the Mixed Doubles

• 7.30pm. Tall Indian and crowd favourite Arvind Bhat (5th seed) takes on the 3rd seeded Chun Seang Tan (Malaysia) in what looms as one of the matches of the tournament so far, due to start at

• 8.30pm. The final all New Zealand combination left in the tournament in the shape of Kritteka Gregory and Susannah Leydon-Davis will be hoping for a large and noisy home crowd as they take on a Chinese Taipei pairing for a place in the Women’s Doubles semi-finals.

Play commences at 5.30pm with doors open at the North Shore Events Centre from 4.30pm, ticket can be purchased at the door for tonight’s session and also Friday(semifinals from 12.30pm) and Saturday (finals from 12.30pm).

For further information on results, draws and ticketing visit www.nzbadmintonopen.com

SKYCITY NZ Badminton Open
North Shore Events Centre
Round 3 results, Thursday 17 April

Men’s Singles
Jiann Shiarng Chiang (MAS) def Chun Kang Shia (MAS) 21-19 21-15; Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif (MAS) def Joe Wu (NZL) 21-17 21-13; Chun Seang Tan (MAS) def Hyun Il Lee (KOR) 21-14 2-1 Retired; Chia-Hsin Wan (TPE) def Yu Hsien Lin (TPE) 21-16 21-17; Tzu Wei Wang (TPE) def Riyanto Subagja (INA) 21-13 17-21 21-15; Jen Hao Hsu (TPE) def Dylan Soedjasa (NZL) 21-10 21-14; Kuei Chun Shih (TPE) def Sourabh Varma (IND) 21-18 21-15; Arvind Bhat (IND) def Tang Jie Chen (MAS) 21-8 21-14;

Men’s Doubles
Jui Wei Liang/Kuan Hao Liao (TPE) def Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif/Chun Seang Tan (MAS) 21-18 21-17; Yuya Komatsuzaki/Hiroki Takeuchi (JPN) def Kien Keat Koo/Pakkawat Vilailak (MAS/THA) 21-16 21-17; Hung Ling Chen/Chia Pin Lu (TPE) def Magnaye Peter Gabriel/Paul Jefferson Vivas (PHI) 21-15 21-15; Hardianto Hardianto/Agripinna Prima Rahmanto Putra (INA) def Muhammad Adib Haiqal Nurizwan/Victor Jing Khai Ong (MAS) 21-15 21-7; Selvanus Guh/Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo (INA) def Po Jui Huang/Ching Yao Lu (TPE) 21-19 21-14; Robin Middleton/Ross Smith (AUS) def Chia-Hsin Wan/Tzu Wei Wang (TPE) 21-17 21-17; Takuto Inoue/Yuki Kaneko (JPN) def Kevin James Dennerly-Minturn/Oliver Leydon-Davis (NZL) 21-16 21-12

Mixed Doubles
Matthew Chau/Jacqueline Guan (AUS) def Mitchell Wheller/Verdet Kessler (AUS) 21-9 21-18; Jagdish Singh/Wee Long Roni Tan (MAS) def Raymond Tam/Glenn Warfe (AUS) 21-15 21-10; Irfan Fadhilah/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaja (INA) def Sawan Serasinghe/Mapasa Setyana (AUS/INA) 21-12 21-12; Kien Keat Koo/Hui Lin Ng (MAS) def Oliver Leydon-Davis/Susannah Leydon-Davis (NZL) 21-12 21-17; Chia Pin Lu/Chi Ya Cheng (TPE) def Michael Fowke/Emilie Furbo (NZL/DEN) 19-21 21-8 21-10; Alfian Eko Prasetya/Annisa Saufika (INA) def Takuto Inoue/Yuki Fukushima (JPN) 21-17 18-21 21-16; Po Jui Huang/Pei Ling Shuai (TPE) def Luke Charlesworth/Vicki Copeland (NZL) 21-16 21-7; Edi Subaktiar/Melati Daeva Oktaviani (INA) def Ross Smith/Renuga Veeran (AUS) 21-12 18-21 21-16; Chi-Lin Wang/Szu Yu Chen (TPE) def Maika Phillips/Anona Pak (NZL) 21-9 21-17

ENDS

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