Since September he is training at the BEC Centre of Excellence in Holbaek which had made him feel well prepared for the tournament. ‘My last tournament was in Belgium, so I have had a couple of weeks with good training. The training in COE is really good and I mostly like that the environment is very professional’ Burestedt said about his trainings. Burestedt will now prepare for his next tournament which is the Hungarian International in two weeks.

For Croatian COE player Zvonimir Durkinjak the training at the Centre of Excellence has not started well. ‘I snapped my back during the first training, so the last 3 weeks I have doing mostly technical training’, Durkinjak commented to Badminton Europe. ‘It was not my best tournament, but for the preparation that I had, I am happy with the results’ Durkinjak added. Durkinjak lost in the third round to Misha Zilberman from Israel, in three sets. Just like Burestedt, Durkinjak stated that he likes the professional environment in Holbaek. He feels like he can fully commit to badminton since all the facilities are available and close by. His next tournaments are Denmark and Bittburger Open. ‘I feel like I have to change my training a bit to keep it up physically, but luckily the coaches in COE will understand that’ Durkinjak stated.

High hopes for home crowd in mixed doubles

Dutch pairs Jacco Arends & Selena Piek and Jelle Maas & Imke van der Aar (pictured above) also managed to proceed to the quarter finals. ‘We played way better than yesterday. 'I felt we played more like a team’ Piek stated after her match. In the next round they have to face other Dutch player Ruben Jille who is playing with Emilie Lefel from France. ‘It is important to never underestimate any couple, they beat a couple that won here before’ Piek commented about their upcoming match. ‘But it is also important to believe in our own abilities’.

Jelle Maas and Imke van der Aar will face England’s Ben Lane and Jessica Pugh in the next round. ‘We had a good preparation and everything we trained for has come out’ Van der Aar commented. ‘But it is important to focus on match by match’

Swiss/Dutch pair to quarter final in women’s doubles, French surprise in men’s doubles.

Iris Tabeling (NED) and Nadia Fankhauser (SUI pictured above) beat English pair Jenny Moore and Victoria Williams in the second round and will play quarter finals. Tabeling and Fankhauser are both training at CBA, an academy located in different countries that offers structure for performance players in multiple countries. They will face the second seeded Malaysian pair in the quarter final.

In men’s doubles Bastian Kersaudy and Julien Maio from have given a surprise by beating the first seeded Indonesian couple in straight sets. 

In women’s singles, the three remaining Danish women Sofie Holmboe Dahl, Mia Blichfeldt and Mette Poulsen have been able to win their second round and are through to the quarter finals. 

For all results from day 3 in Almere click HERE

For a photo gallery from Yonex Dutch Open click HERE

To re visit the action from court 1 on demand via our YouTube channel click HERE