Day two of the Fuzhou China Open completed the first rounds of the tournament. For a few players there was a familiar feeling in their matches.
Denmark’s Mia Blichfeldt in the women’s singles faced Singapore’s rising young star Yeo Jia Min. They have met before, however you need to go back four years to their junior days, where their head to head was one a piece. On court today, they will have recognised the opponent on the other side of the net, but their game play was very different.
Blichfeldt got off to a positive start, maintaining her lead throughout for a 21-15 win in the opening game. Yeo tried to do just that in the second game, but Blichfeldt kept clawing it back. Despite this, Yeo just had enough to take the game 22-20. This focus and determination shown by Blichfeldt in that lost game meant that Yeo exerted herself to force the decider. This showed in the third game, with the Dane taking and 8-1 lead in lightning fast time and never looked back, taking the game 21-12.
Blichfeldt now faces fifth seed Ratchanok Intanon in the next round.
Back to business
England’s men’s doubles pair of Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge efficiently dispatched the Dutch pairing of Jelle Maas and Robin Tabeling 21-19, 21-11. The pairs met at the European Games earlier in the year with a similar outcome.
Anders Antonsen also faced an opponent whom he is familiar with in Kantaphon Wangcharoen from Thailand. They have battled at the recent Denmark Open and at this year’s World Championships in Basel. Each time it has been a comfortable two game win for the determined Dane. Today was no different, with Antonsen securing a 21-12, 21-7.
For the full results and fixtures, click here.