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The opening round of the Japan Open took place on Tuesday with a number of the worlds top Badminton players heading to Tokyo to take part in the Super 750 event.
It’s set to be a tough one for Europe with no European players even seeded for the event but a number of the continents top stars will be confident in causing somewhat of an upset come finals day on Sunday.
Blichfeldt denies home favourite Takahashi
Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt came through an extremely tough opening round match-up against Mayaka Takahashi (Japan) to get into round two.
Blichfeldt, the world number 13, edged past Japan’s Women’s Singles star with a 21-18, 6-21, 21-13 win over Takahashi in a near hour-long match-up.
The European Games champion looked to be in trouble after losing the second game so convincingly (6-21) but managed to regain her focus to take the decider,21-13, and cement her place in the last 32 of the Women’s Singles tomorrow.
Bad day for the Dutch
On the other hand, it was a disappointing day at the office for the Dutch players as all of their representatives fell in the opening round.
Firstly, it was the Women’s Doubles pair of Selena Piek and Cheryl Seinen, who were beaten comfortably by the 5th seeds, Greysia Polii and Apriyani Rahayu (Indonesia), 21-14, 21-13.
Men’s Singles star Mark Caljouw then lost a back and forth match-up with Kantaphon Wangcharoen (Thailand) in the deciding game.
The Dutchman led after the opener but then allowed the Thai man back into the match-up and eventually lost out 21-16, 11-21, 11-21.
It then got even worse as the Men’s Doubles pair of Jelle Maas and Robin Tabeling lost in straight games to Cheng Kai Han and Hao Dong Zhou (China) 21-10, 21-11, bringing an early end to a forgettable tournament for Dutch fans.
See all the results from day one of the Japan Open here.
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