By V. Ashok

IT was another outing that turned out to be a bitter pill to swallow for our top national badminton players on their current European Tour. We failed to deliver any success that looked promising earlier at the just concluded Swiss Open in Basel.

The closest was our mixed double pair, Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Jemie Lai. They played hard but could not find a way out to win the trophy in the last hurdle. The duo gave their best and had their fair chances in the pulsating match that lasted an hour.

At the end, they caved in and lost to the fast rising Chinese pair, Jiang Zhenbang- Wei Yaxin 17-21,21-19, 17-21. It was the Malaysians second successive final in the Swiss Open after finishing as runners-up, last year.

The good feeling factor is, they made to the podium finish after our team’s overall poor performances at the All-England championship in Birmingham, a week ago.

Despite the defeat, the world No.11 pair were still the best performers for us and are now in a good position to be called up for the Sudirman Cup from May-14-21 in Suzhou, China.

Shevon admitted their young opponent are a force to be reckoned with, but defended, they gave everthing in yesterday final.

“We gave our best we had in today’s final, but they were better pair of the day,” she said as quoted by a local news portal, today.

The World Tour Super 300 in St Jakobshalle, Basel that offered a total prize money of US$210,000 (RM840,000) also ended in a sombre mood for Viktor Axelsen and our local ace, Lee Zii Jia. Surprisingly, both lost in the semi-finals without much a fight.

It would have been a much awaited final for the big crowd if both players were to make the finals after failing to hit podium finish in the recent All-England.

On Saturday, Zii Jia failed to cross the hurdle to the finals of men singles, losing to Japanese world number 37, Koki Watanabe in straight sets.

His pint-sized opponent eventually becomes the new star of the tournament by winning the title defeating Taiwanese veteran, Chou Tien Chen in the entertaining match which lasted more than an hour, last night.

Another disappointing episode follows after our independent men’s doubles pair, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi, did their very best with some attacking qualities but fell to Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty 19-21,21-17,17-21 in the semi-finals.

The Indian world No.6 pair ended their campaign by emerging as new champions, beating Ren Xiangyu-Tan Qiang from China, 21-19, 24-22.

On the other note, our prominent players do have a lot to answer their coaches and the Badminton Association Malaysia (BAM) after a string of poor performances at Birmingham, Basel and also the German Open.

The biggest let down in these tournaments are our top men and women doubles pairs.

What went wrong to the reigning world champions, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik and also our locals favourites, Pearly Tan – M.Thinaah ? As expected, few reasons would be given for the early rounds defeats, but, based on their respective world ranking status, it doesn’t look justifying on their part.

Unlike other world top doubles pairs from South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, China or Denmark who are gearing up to produce good results in recent tournaments, our doubles players looked lost at the moment to find the right footing winning big matches. Their confidence too seems to be lacking.

The next Badminton World Federation tournament will be the Madrid Spain Masters, starting tomorrow.

Majulah badminton untuk negara!

RESULTS
(Malaysians unless stated)

SEMI-FINAL
Men’s singles: Koki Watanabe (Jpn) bt Lee Zii Jia 21-11, 21-14; Chou Tien-chen (Tpe) bt Viktor Axelsen (Den) 21-10, 21-15.
Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (Ind) bt Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi 21-19, 17-21, 21-17; Ren Xiangyu-Tan Qiang (Chn) bt Ben Lane-Sean Vendy (Eng) 21-10, 21-17.
Women’s singles: Mia Blichfeldt (Den) bt Zhang Beiwen (US) 19-21, 21-19, 21-18; Pornpawee Chochuwong (Tha) bt Gregoria Mariska (Ina) 18-21, 21-13, 21-17.
Women’s doubles: Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota (Jpn) bt Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia (Ina) 21-17, 16-10, (ret.); Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto (Jpn) bt Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee (Kor) 21-17, 21-19.
Mixed doubles: Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie bt Robin Tabeling-Selena Piek (Ned) 21-14, 23-21; Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin (Chn) bt Ye Hong-wei-Lee Chia-hsin (Tpe) 21-13, 23-21.

FINAL
Men’s doubles: Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty (Ind) bt Ren Xiangyu-Tan Qiang (Chn) 21-19, 24-22.
Women’s singles: Pornpawee Chochuwong (Tha) bt Mia Blichfeldt (Den) 21-16, 21-18.
Women’s doubles: Rena Miyaura-Ayako Sakuramoto (Jpn) w.o Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota (Jpn).
Mixed doubles: Jiang Zhenbang-Wei Yaxin (Chn) bt Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie 21-17, 19-21, 21-17.