European success was few and far between this morning in Vantaa as Asia dominated the majority of the play in the quarter finals session. Eetu Heino kept the home hopes alive in the men’s singles draw and eased into the semi final after a two game win over Turkey’s Emre Lale.
The Turk has beaten Heino before so there was no room for complacency from the Finn.
-He beat me in Estonia in January so I had a good idea what I needed to do to be on the right side of the result this time around.
In the end Lale was no match for Heino who was firing on all cylinders and the Finn put the win down to a solid plan and just solid badminton.
-A good start was important as sometimes if you can get that against the Turks they are unable to come back strong. Also I was solid today and that is down to the high level of practise over the past year which is paying off now.
-But for sure I had to work for each point and even though the score suggested it was easy I still had to make it easy but by working hard.
Russia did provide some icing on the cake from a European perspective advancing two mixed doubles pairs to this afternoon’s semi finals. Davletova/Alimov (pictured above) & Grachev/Bolotova are the sole European’s remaining in the mixed doubles draw.
Ozge Bayrak is starting to show some of the form that won her a European bronze medal in 2014 and like Heino in the men’s singles the Turk burden’s the European responsibility in the semi final but will be underdog against Hartawan of Indonesia.