Several heavy underdogs from Europe gave a fright to higher-ranked Asians but all weathered the storm, including Korea’s Park Sung Hwan, who finally prevailed over Norway’s Steinar Klausen (pictured).  In the end only two seeds fell, including Europe’s own Joachim Persson as China and Japan both went undefeated on the day.

By Don Hearn, Badzine Correspondent.  Photos: Badmintonphoto.com (live)
After an opening day when both Bao Chunlai and Malaysia’s mixed pair of Abdul Latif/Woon lost to unheralded European challengers, Europe made several more threats of upsets on Day 2 but fell short in each instance.

First up was Lithuania’s Kestutis Navickas, who took Thai star Boonsak Ponsana to 3 games before the 16th seed prevailed 21-14, 14-21, 21-17.  Next up, Schoettler/Overzier of Germany were edged out in two ever-so-close games 21-19, 26-24 by Hong Kong’s Chau/Wiratama.  8th-seeded Park Sung Hwan of Korea may be known for his ability to trouble the top Chinese players but it was he who was in trouble against the world’s #140 Steinar Klausen.   Park came back from one game down and from 12-15 down in the decider to win 19-21, 21-13, 21-18.   (To learn more about Klausen, SEE HERE)

Surprise suprise

The surprise of the day was the ousting of Joachim Persson (photo) of Denmark. The Dane, too eager to win for a competition he had well prepared for, failed to do on court what he had planned in his head, and it was his opponent, the 20-year-old Tago Kenichi of  Japan, who stole the show, winning the second and third games quite easily.

"I had watched a lot of videos of Persson's games and I knew what to expect.  He played well at the beggining, but once I adjusted my game I felt like I had more stamina," said Tago.

Late in the day, Chinese Taipei’s Fang/Lee had to come back from a game behind to beat Switzerland’s Christian Boesiger / Anthony Dumartheray 15-21, 21-11, 21-15.  Soon afterward, the last near-upset of the day saw another  Taiwan pair, Chou/Chen finally come out ahead of Baptiste Careme / Laura Choinet of France 11-21, 21-9, 21-10.  The French pair managed to control the match, attacking sparingly, but in the second game, the Taiwan pair caught on to the the tactic and began to pull away.

"It's often like this.  When we are permitted to play our game, everything goes well, but they adapted to our game plan and changed their own.  We weren't able to adapt in turn and we were a little lost out there," said Baptiste after the match.

It could have been a better day for Malaysia.  Both of their veteran men’s doubles pairs went down.  Chan/Chew lost to Jpaan’s Shoji Sato.  Sato - in his first World Championship outing in doubles - with Naoki Kawamae, won it 18-21, 21-15, 21-16.  Meanwhile, 12th-seeded Choong/Lee (photo) lost to one of the few players in the draw  who is more advanced in years than they as 2005 champions Tony Gunawan and Howard Bach edged them out 21-15, 18-21, 23-21.

For complete results from Day 2 of the 2009 Yonex Sunrise BWF World Championships, please CLICK HERE

For live, local coverage from Hyderabad, follow the World Championships on Badzine India

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