David Follett (ENG) and David Toupe (FRA) made it through the WH1 events today to reach all 3 semi-finals here at the Shabab Al-Ahli Sports Club. Meanwhile Europe’s number 2 SU5 men’s singles hope Ilker Tuzcu (TUR) narrowly avoids the knockout stages
Whilst the Standing categories at the first ever Dubai para-badminton international are well represented with good numbers of athletes and many world champions present, the wheelchair categories are lacking the sheer number we are used to seeing with the absence of Korea, Thailand and a few Europeans.
Two players who are taking full advantage of this fact are England’s David Follett and Frenchman David Toupe in WH1. Both men came through their groups in men’s doubles, mixed doubles and singles and have even been drawn against each other in tomorrow’s semi-finals. Whilst Follett has been fighting tooth-and-nail to get through his draws, Toupe has barely broken a sweat, having not dropped a game all week.
Europe’s SU5 men’s singles hopes now rest with Mroz
Arguable the most exciting match of the day was in the SU5 men’s singles, as Turkey’s Ilker Tuzcu drawn in a group of death with world number 1 Cheah Liek Hou (MAL) and Asian Games semi-finalist Oddie Kurnia Dwi Listiant Putra (INA). Having lost to Cheah this morning, Tuzcu had no choice but to throw everything he had at the Indonesian this afternoon to keep his Dubai dream alive. In a nail-biting finish, Oddie’s trademark double-up-the-line caught the Turk off guard at 20-18 in the 3rd game and brought an end to Tuzcu’s singles campaign. It now falls to Poland’s only representative at this tournament Bartlomiej Mroz to carry the main hope for medals in the standing-upper men’s singles.
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Europe against the world
The neutral ground in Dubai ‘the gateway to the world’ is a fine venue to stage the fight against Asia, the old foe. In a tally of group winners today, positive news for Europe is that the rest of the world has just one more player/pair seeded in premium positions moving into quarter and semi-finals, across all events, with only the standing men’s doubles events yet to finish the groups. The stage is set for Europe to come away with a good haul of medals at the first ever Dubai para-badminton international.
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