The German who spent one year out of the game recovering from the same injury that ended the career of his team mate Max has been in sparkling form since his return to the circuit this season and is starting to look like the real deal for Germany moving forward. 

A second round win over Artem Pochtarev set the German up nicely for a quarter final meeting with the other form circuit player, Viktor Svendsen of Denmark. The Dane, who won the Polish International last week had also battled through qualification and an easy second round win over Henri Hurskainen confirmed his rich run of form. 

Roth (main picture) and Svendsen shared the opening sets and Roth’s run of 8 points in a row mid game in the deciding set was enough to break the Danes spirit. Another tournament and another semi-final for the unassuming German and Thomas Rouxel of France awaits in tomorrow’s semi-final.

To revisit the match between Roth and Svendsen on demand via Youtube click HERE

Tan bounces back from poor Belgian performance

Two weeks ago was a tournament to forget for Belgian Lianne Tan. The two time Olympian lost in the opening round of her home international. Today in Prague Tan (pictured above) put that memory firmly behind her to book a semi-final spot with some of the best badminton she has played in her recent career. 

Coming through the middle of the pack unseeded, Tan took down Slobodyanyuk of Russia in a tough three setter in round two before coming back from a poor start in the quarter final to beat Fabienne Deprez of Germany. 

The Belgian will now play Mette Poulsen after the Dane beat top seed Beatriz Corrales in her quarter final. Denmark will have two representatives in tomorrow’s semi-final as Natalia Koch Rohde blasted her way to the semi without dropping a set. 

Elsewhere Mariya Mitsova and Petya Nedelcheva continued their assault on the circuit in 2016. Today the Bulgarians were literally too powerful for the young Danes Soby and Jakobsen. Just as the Bulgarians are a relatively new pairing doing well this week so too are Polish men’s doubles pair Bochat and Cwalina. The Poles were pushed hard today by Irish second seeds Sam & Joshua Magee to set up a semi-final meeting against Danes Bay-Smidt and Sogaard. 

To revisit the match between Magee/Magee and Bochat/Cwalina on demand via YouTube click HERE

Mathias Bay-Smidt will also feature in the mixed doubles semi-finals after he and European junior star Alexandra Boje came through two rounds of qualification and three main draw rounds to book a hard earned semi-final spot. At least one Danish mixed pair is guaranteed a final spot as Bay-Smidt & Boje (pictured above) will face off against Bond & Soby Hansen in tomorrow’s semi-final.  

For a photo gallery from today’s play in Prague click HERE

For all results from the quarter finals of 2016 FZ FORZA Prague Open click HERE