Jorrit de Ruiter

I promised to write a report after the weekend of the World Championships last week in London. I apologise for the lack of information during the tournament but it was very hard to get an internet connection.

Monday evening Dave and I played against the strong Chinese pair Hong Wei and Shen Ye. I played against the latter one time before together with my former partner Jurgen Wouters. Shen Ye’s partner was then the multiple world champion Fu Haifeng. At that time Jurgen and I didn’t stand a chance. Bearing in mind our good result against other Chinese at the Bitburger we started our match in good faith.

In the first game we came 5 points behind rather quickly but after we had scored our first point we got the right focus. Although we couldn’t really catch up with our opponents in the first game we still maintained a good way of playing. Especially at the end of the first game we played very well. We managed to eliminate 3 game points and we came to a 19-20 score. With a “net roller” the Chinese grabbed the win of the first game. In the second game we barely escaped each other. Still the Chinese took the lead but after the break the 6-11 gap was reduced. It was typical that our opponents scored from the back court while we were controlling the net. Unfortunately we didn’t even come close to winning the game. We lost with 16-21. Of course I was disappointed to be kicked out in the first round but on the other hand I was proud that we performed well. These guys reached the quarter finals so they belong to the world’s best players. In these big tournaments you also need some luck in your draw and that is what we lacked the last two editions.

As we were only flying back home on Friday we had plenty of time to watch fantastic matches. Let’s see how my predictions for every event ended up.

In the men’s singles I was pretty close. I was right with the four medallists but the title went for the fourth time to Lin Dan leaving Lee Chong Wei empty handed.  I regretted this because I was very much in favour of him. Perhaps gold next year?

The ladies singles was an event full of surprises. Finally it was Wang Yihan who grabbed the title defeating Cheng Shao Chieh. The 2004 World Junior Champion from Chinese Taipei. Juliane Schenk delivered an outstanding performance winning the bronze medal for Germany.

In the men’s doubles the pair I predicted got the title. Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun seem to be almost unbeatable on World Championships. They defeated the number two pair from Korea Ko and Yoo who played a very good tournament. On the other hand Boe and Mogensen again delivered a disappointing performance just like at the Sudirman Cup.  In the quarter finals they lost from Septano and Ahsan from Indonesia who finally won the bronze medal.

In the ladies doubles I predicted the gold and silver medal correctly as well as one bronze medal. Yu and Wang won the tournament with large supremacy. Tian and Zhao conquered the silver medal and  the bronze was won by Maeda en Suetsuna from Japan and quite surprisingly by the Indian pair Ponnappa and Guta.

Also the mixed doubles was won by the predicted pair. The world’s number one pair Zhang and Zhao were a class of their own during the entire event. They defeated the British super pair Adcock and Bankier who played a world class tournament. The bronze medals were for Indonesia and China.

Altogether the Wembley Arena has passed the first serious test and, apart from some minor adjustments to the Hall,  it seems to be ready for the Olympic challenge. In less than 12 months from now new Olympic champions will be born in this hall. I am already looking forward to the TV images!