Events

Marcel is the Man
Date: 2/17/2012 8:49 PM
Published by : Manuel Røsler
Quarter finals day at the European Men and Women’s team championship and once again it was Marcel Reuter (main picture) who proved to be worth more than his weight in gold as he guided Germany to a 3-2 victory over The Netherlands in a marathon match which was streamed on Badminton Europe TV.
Germany had blasted into a 2-0 lead through Marc Zwiebler and doubles pairing of Schöttler and Kindervater but Dicky Palyama, appearing in his final Thomas Cup match before retirement, gave the Dutch men a glimmer of hope as he took the second singles against Dieter Domke.

The Germans surely felt that the experience of Roth and Fuchs would be enough to fend off the challenge of Jacco Arends and Jelle Maas but against the odds the Dutch came back from a set down to win in three in what was without doubt the match of the tie.

The task fell to either Nick Fransman or Reuter to guide their team to the semi final and it certainly was a case of experience coming out on top over youth as Reuter stormed to victory.

“I was nervous going on court but I had been in this position before against Russia two years ago so I just called on all the memories from that occasion to see me through. The Dutch team really played well today but we just had enough experience to come through and advance to the semi final tomorrow” said Reuter to Badminton Europe.

In the other quarter final matches in the Men’s tournament Denmark barely got out of first gear in defeating Poland 3-0, Russia prevailed over a stubborn French side and the English were really convincing against Ukraine to justify their seeding and make it to tomorrows semi final.

In the women’s quarter finals Germany powered to a 3-0 win over France as stated their claim for the top step of the podium come Sunday. Juliane Schenk led the way with a power dominated display against French number 1 Pi Hongyan. Top Germans doubles pairing of Marinello and Michels barely broke a sweat against French pair Fontaine and Lefel and it was down to first time capped Olga Konon to deliver the winning point and she did that in style with a two set win over Perinne Lebuhanic.

“It was so nice to win the match for Germany today. I felt just a small bit nervous going onto court but after winning the first set pretty easy I didn’t push too hard in the second to try and save some energy” said Konon to Badminton Europe.

Denmark were made to work really hard against Ukraine with Natalya Voytsekh looking like a real prospect for the future. Dane were taken right down to the wire and had to relay on the strength of their doubles to get them through to the semi finals.

In a nail biting end to the match between The Dutch girls and Switzerland, Selena Piek and Iris Tabeling saved match and tie point when they looked to be going out at quarter final stage against the brave Swiss. In a crazy end to the game Selena Piek had the guts to throw in a crazy flick serve ace to win the match to the roars of the big Dutch crowd. Lotte Jonathens and Pauline Van Dooremalen finished off the job for the Dutch and Russia came from behind to defeat Bulgaria.

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