What a crazy day it must have been today in Paris. One top favourite after another was eliminated in the quarterfinals.
The day started with the elimination of the first seeded Widianto / Natsir in the mixed doubles. They lost in two close games from Zheng Bo / Ma Jin from China. In this tournament Zheng Bo has only one mission, becoming world champion in his favourite discipline. His coach Li Yongbo is giving him one chance to play for a comeback into
the team after he was suspended for disciplinary reasons and it seems that he grabs the opportunity with both hands.
The second surprise came when the 2009 world champions Laybourn / Juhl were defeated bij the Olympic bronze medallists He / Yu from China. This means that in the mixed doubles there will be a new couple claiming the World title.
In the men’s doubles there was, in my opinion, a surprising result but in terms of ranking it was a logical victory. Koo and Tan from Malaysia, the current number one of the world, won from the Koreans Jung/ Lee for the first time after having lost eight consecutive matches from them. Their last confrontation, three weeks ago in
Taipei, was decided in favour of the Koreans. Today it was different. Koo and Tan still lost the first game by 23-25 but than they finished the job off with convincing numbers 21-13 and 21-14. Are they going to get the first gold medal ever for Malaysia? In the men’s singles the gold medal is no longer within reach. Lee Chong Wei, the worlds number one, lost from Taufik Hidayat, the 2005 world champion and Olympic Gold medallist in Athens. In a 3 game match of over one hour the Indonesian claimed the victory. It surely was a big surprise since their last confrontation in Indonesia was decided in favour of the Malaysian and without too much trouble.
In the women’s singles Saina Nehwal, second seeded, lost her match from the sixth-seeded Chinese Wang Shixian. So besides Tine Baun there are three “Wangs” in the semifinals, which itself is an achievement.
The sensation of the day was taken care of by the Korean Park Sung Hwan. He defeated three-time World Champion and current Olympic champion Lin Dan with 21-13 and 21-13. However Park had defeated Lin Dan three times before and he is a bit of an “angstgegner”, (a feared opponent) for the Chinese. This outcome must have been very hard for Lin Dan, especially because he hadn’t lost one match at a big championships tournament since 2006. So, also in this discipline we are going to have a new world champion.
Tomorrow at 11:00 AM the battle goes on in Paris with truly stunning matches scheduled. The two best matches seem to me the one between Chen Jin and Peter Gade and the men’s doubles Fu / Cai and Kido / Setiawan. Who will grab a ticket for the final on Sunday?