 As you know, the draw for the upcoming World Championships in Paris was published. This edition no less than 12 Dutch players will compete. Against whom are they going to play and what are their chances? The coming days you will find a brief preview for each discipline. Today the men’s singles.
In the men’s singles, we have two Dutch participants. Eric Pang and Dicky Palyama will uphold the the Dutch honor.Â
In the first round Eric plays against the Champion of England, Rajiv Ouseph. I find it a tough first round for him. Although it is 3-1 for Eric in their mutual encounters, the last time in Korea, he lost in three games to the Englishman. He will have to do everything possible to defeat Ouseph, who was bronze medallist at the recent European Championships. Should Eric survive the first round then his next opponent is the Dane Jörgensen who was runner-up at the last European Championships.Â
In his first round Dicky Palyama plays against the French favorite and number one in France, Brice Leverdez. Considering his broad experience with this kind of events and the fact that he has won three times from Leverdez I believe Dicky has the best chance but, no doubt, it is going to be a difficult match. During the Grand Prix tournament in Canada and the U.S. Grand Prix Gold tournament Leverdez was in the finals but he lost both matches respectively from Taufik Hidayat and Eric’s opponent, Rajiv Ouseph. The man is obviously in good shape. If Dicky survives the first round, then he will play against the Indonesian Sony Dwi Kuncoro. In 2007 Kuncoro won the silver medal and last year the bronze in India.