In the men’s doubles, the Netherlands stakes two couples. Ruud Bosch and Koen Ridder and Dave and myself will compete in Paris.Â
Ruud and Koen have a good draw. In the first round they meet the Russians Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov. Both couples have never played against each other before. Based on the world ranking they are well matched. Koen and Ruud are currently ranked 44 and the Russians take the 46th position on the ranking. Yet I believe Koen and Ruud have the best chances in this match and I expect that they will qualify for the next round. Here they are likely to be confronted with Biao Chai and Zhang Nan from China. They are currently the third couple from the selection of Li Yongbo.
As I mentioned before Dave and I haven’t been lucky with our draw. Although we have a bye in the first round, and consequently don’t have to play we will, in the second round, be facing Lee Sheng Mu and Fang Chieh Min from Chinese Taipei. We have never played against each other too but it needs a miracle to let Dave and I make it to the third round. These men from Taipei keep the sixth place in the world ranking and they have won four tournaments in a row this summer, the Super Series in Singapore and Indonesia, the Grand Prix tournament in Canada and the Grand Prix Gold in the U.S.