In the meantime I am back at Papendal. The German Open is finished, for me. It were instructive days. Both in mixed and in men’s doubles Korean top players were our opponents.Â
Monday afternoon after the training I was called by the technical director that Paulien and I had been moved to the qualification tournament. Before, we were at the waiting list as neither of us still has a ranking in the mixed doubles anymore. Two places had come free, one right in the top of the schedule where there were not too strong couples or right at the bottom of the schedule between Korean and Japanese players. We ended up in the bottom part!
Our opponents were Shin Baek Choel and Ha Jung Eun. They are not a couple together and therefore also not mentioned on the world ranking, but both of them belong to the world-top. Shin won the mixed doubles in the Asian Games only a few months ago and Ha was playing the finals of the All England two years ago.
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The first set we could handle quite well. The tactics we had worked well and there were good rallies. A few inaccurate movements made us loose the first game. The second game we did not start well. In the break we were 11-3 behind. But after that we picked up the way we were playing in the first set again, but because of too much difference we did not manage to get closer to them anymore.
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The next day at 6 pm the men’s doubles had to be played against Jung and Lee. Of course I was well prepared and I had been watching their Youtube matches over and over again. The first game went very well. We played at our best. Only 4 or 5  service mistakes from our side made that the Koreans got their points quite easily. The rallies were very good, but in the end we lost the first game with 17-21. In the second game we came too much behind and it became clear why they are nr. 3 of the world and we are nr 44. The rallies were still good, but we did not manage to score many more points. In half an hour it was over and done with. Afterwards my coach and I had a talk about this match (Dave was not there as he still had to play the mixed) and we both were very satisfied!
This morning at Papendal I trained hard again for the next two tournaments. I hope tomorrow there will be some time to play matches as most of the dutch players will be finished in Mülheim and will be back home again.
Then a nice weekend off and on Monday we will be leaving for Birmingham to go to -in my opinion- one of the most beautiful tournaments. It’s one of my favourites: the All England.
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I will try to keep you informed.
Tags: All England, badminton, German Open, jorrit de ruiter, Lee Yong Dae, men's doubles, mixed doubles, Papendal