David Toupe continues to live up to his number one seeding in both singles and doubles this week in Dubai, as he makes his way through to both finals
The French WH1 player has been in fine form this week after a long break of 12 months from competition. Aside from a 23-25 wobble in the WH1 Group A men’s singles where India’s Shashank Kumar pushed him to a third game, the former European Champion hasn’t been troubled on the half-court.
Today’s semi-final victory over Keita Nishimura (JPN) was over in 34 minutes with a 21-15, 21-12 performance which looked close to begin with, but after the mid game interval in the first, Toupe powered through the next game and a half.
Tomorrow he faces Malaysian Muhammad Ikhwan Ramli in the WH1 men’s singles final, a man he has seen in action first hand as he faced him in the WH1-2 men’s doubles semi-final this afternoon with partner and teammate Thomas Jakobs
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Ramli and partner Noor Azwan Noorlan took the opening game 21-12 with an impressive run of seven consecutive points towards the end. The French pair held serve at 20-12 up in the second game, but it took them seven points to close the deal and force a decider.
‘I’m just happy to be competing again’
The Frenchmen exploded into the lead early in the third and didn’t look back, taking the match with a 21-9 final game. We spoke with Toupe this evening to find out how he is feeling to be back in international competition, he had this to say
- today’s opponents were strong which makes it more satisfying to get through to the finals. To be honest I am just glad to be back on court at an international competing again!
- tomorrow will be hard work. I have to face Ramli again, but this time in singles and our opponents in doubles will be as good as those today so we will have to work hard, he added
- It has been difficult to say whether myself, or with Thomas, we can make it to the Paralympics. It has been a tough journey since the start. We have one more tournament left to determine that dream and I am trying my best as always, said Toupe
Follow the 3rd Fazza Dubai Para badminton international tournament here this week and across our usual platforms. The schedule and results can be found on tournament software here