Events

Men’s singles draw blown open
Date: 3/23/2016 9:14 PM
Published by : Mark Phelan
Wednesday was ‘moving day’ in the European U 17 individual event in Lubin and while many embraced the pressure both remaining Danes fell in the fourth round leaving the men’s singles draw quarter final draw void of any Danish interest.

The draw was dealt a big blow early on with the loss of top seed Jan Louda who had to withdraw due to illness. The smaller nations obviously felt something in the air as the seeds began to fall one by one with Europe’s smaller nations coming to the fore. 

In what proved to be a very black hour for Denmark Ireland’s Nhat Nguyen (main picture) was the first to make his mark beating Mads Thorgesen in two games 21-16 21-7 before Julian Carraggi created possibly the biggest upset of the week ending the medal dream of Danish second seed Jesper Toft again in two games. 

If that was not enough excitement for the day less than an hour later Danylo Bosniuk of the Ukraine ended the dreams of another favourite for the title, Arnaud Merkle of France, taking down the recent Dutch junior finalist in three game 25-23 

With seven nationalities represented in the quarter final the men’s singles draw is now wide open for someone to stake a claim to the title. 



The women’s singles draw proved to be a little more predictable on ‘moving day’. All the big favourites stepped up a gear to get within one match of a guaranteed medal. Reka Madarasz (pictured above) of Hungary ended the impressive week of Germany’s Annika Schreiber and the powerful Hungarian will be very difficult to stop on her charge to the podium.

As expected Skodstrup, Ilyinskaya, Penalver and Unlu of Turkey all powered their way through with only Petra Polnac of Slovenia looking slightly out of place in the quarter finals. Polnac relied on her power game to take her through today against Tereza Svabikova of Czech Republic and will be a real handful for Busra Unlu in tomorrow’s medal match. 

Ukraine with more than just singles on their mind

Ilyinskaya and Bosniuk look to have a medal within their sights in both men’s and women’s singles and together as a mixed doubles pair they took down Danish ¾ seeds Krogh and Lundgaard to keep the dream of doubles gold alive. 

The Ukrainian pair will probably welcome the distraction of the mixed doubles as a lot of focus has suddenly diverted their way after their singles performances today. A place on the podium is at stake tomorrow and standing in their way will be English duo Hemming and Tolman.  The English are in the last chance saloon after losing their respective doubles earlier in the competition and by virtue of that fact and that fact alone might be slight favourites against the Ukrainians. 



Top seeded French pair Gicquel and Heriau continued on their merry way and mostly under the radar today. The French have not dropped a set en route to the quarter finals while sole remaining Danish pair Boje and Eriksen boast the same statistic as we head towards the final that everyone wants to see. 

Elsewhere Swedish doubles specialist Carl Harrbacka (pictured above in mixed doubles) will have a full day tomorrow as the powerful Swede booked his place in both the mixed doubles and men’s doubles quarter finals. The Swede has been outstanding this week and with Tilda Sjoo look to have a future secured in mixed doubles for Sweden. 

For all today’s results from moving day at #EU17C individual click HERE

For a full photo gallery from today’s play click HERE

To revisit all the action on court 2 from today’s play click HERE

Article and image by Mark Phelan for Badminton Europe

©badmintoneurope.com. All rights reserved.

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