Paris will welcome two Dutch players in the womens’s singles, Yao Jie and Judith Meulendijks.
Thanks to her high world ranking Jie is the only seeded Dutch player during this World Championship tournament. Currently she is No. 13 of the world, but in Paris she is seeded eleventh. In the first round she meets Xing Aiying, playing for Singapore and number 52 on the world ranking. Based on this one might think that it will be an easy first round for Jie. Still, I think she will have to be very cautious in this match. Although Jie won their two previous meetings I think, when looking at the last match between these two players, that this one may very well be a tough one. Jie won the last meeting, but went through the eye of the needle during this match in Singapore last June. The score was: 8-21, 22-20 and 21-17.
In her opening round Judith will meet a seeded player. In order to conquer a place in the second round she has to deal with the current number 17 of the world, Petya Nedelcheva. The Bulgarian, who is seeded 15th in Paris, and who has in fact a better physique for the women’s doubles, still plays a very good single. Judith has played against her twice before. Nine years ago she won, still with the old scoring, in Croatia very easily and more recently she defeated Nedelcheva in two games during the Germant Open 2009 . Judith has proven to be in good shape because last month in Canada she reached the semifinal and in the U.S. she did even better by making it to the final. Unfortunately she had to give up because of a back injury, but fortunately she has now got over it and she will be well prepared for this coming event.