This afternoon Dave and I will play the men’s doubles final at the Yonex Dutch International. Our match is the second one after 12 PM.
The Dutch International is the last EBU tournament before the Olympic qualification definitely ends and for some players/pairs there are still important points to be earned. This tournament immediately precedes the European Championships tournament which starts next Tuesday in Karlskrona, Sweden. For our Technical Staff this was the reason why the players going to Sweden were entered in the doubles only just to avoid playing too many matches. Up to now this worked out well with Dave and myself  in the men’s doubles final and with an entirely Dutch ladies doubles final.
Now back to my own matches. In the first round we met two Indonesians who like to play fast and hard but we had the right answer to their playing style. We won in two fast games. A nice detail was that I trained with one of the guys in 2009 at the Djarum Club in Jakarta when I participated in the Indonesian Open.
In the quarter final we played against the number one Belgium pair. Last year we lost against them, so we wanted a better match yesterday. We know them quite well because they are coming to our training centre pretty often to practise with us. Especially in the second game we played well and we beat them in straight games.
In the semi final Dhama Gunawi and Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki were our opponents. These two Indonesians play in the first Bundesliga in Germany. They like to make a show of each match and this is not easy for the ones they are playing against. If you want to cope with their style you have to be clever and you shall not be tempted to go along with their performance because if you do they send you to every corner of the court. Fortunately we were able to maintain our tactics all the way through the match and we managed to win this spectacular and for the public very entertaining match. So this afternoon we are in the finals!
Unfortunately I cannot report about this final right away because after the match we’ll have to hurry to catch our flight to Copenhagen from where we’ll travel by train and bus to Karlskrona. It’s going to be a long day but I am looking forward to it. If our hotel provides internet I will write a report next week on what happened today. So stay tuned.
Tags: badminton, Dutch International, European Championships, final, jorrit de ruiter, Karlskrona, Velo, Wateringen