The 2012 Thwack Czech International got underway this morning with another jam packed qualification day in all 5 disciplines. The badminton city of Brno plays host to yet another Czech International and it was the singles players from The Netherlands that stole the show on qualification day.
The Dutch came into today’s qualification with a balanced entry of two singles players in each category and all four came through with minimum effort to advance to the main draw tomorrow. In the women’s singles on paper both Thamar Peters and Soraya De Visch Eijbergen were highly fancied to advance and they fully lived up to that expectation. Both girls came through in two sets in each of their qualification matches and only expended the required amount of energy in doing so to move into the main draw.
In the men’s singles Nick Fransman
(pictured) and Erik Meijs were made work just a bit harder than their female compatriots but Fransman in particular got stronger and stronger with each round. The young Dutch man came through his third qualifying match in just 15 minutes winning 21-3 21-8 to book a place in the first round proper. Meijs, the second independent Dutch man, was pushed hard in all three of his qualification matches and will need a good night’s sleep to shake off the effects of three hard thee set matches to be ready for tomorrows main draw match where he will face off against compatriot Fransman.
Elsewhere in the men’s singles Milan Ludik, brother of defending women’s singles champion Kristina Gavnholt, battled through to the main draw and will surely have home crowd support come the main draw action tomorrow. Kim Brun of Denmark displayed his class to book his first round berth without dropping a set in his three qualification matches. The young Dane only dropped a maximum of 13 points in any one game today proving his credentials ahead of the main draw tomorrow.
Mixed doubles qualification saw the emergence of some new talent to the senior circuit and in particular the Danish pair of Gram and Fruergaard caught the eye with their all action style of mixed doubles. English duo of Peter Mills and Alyssa Lim advanced as expected but took their eye off the ball somewhat in their deciding match against Tvrdy and Jamnik. The English duo took the opening game 21-6 and looked to be cruising before a complete lapse in concentration let the Slovenians back into the match and 1 set each. The English went on to take the third game 21-11 but will need to remain concentrated and focused throughout tomorrow if they want to advance towards the business end of the tournament.
You can follow all the LIVE action from Badminton Europe TV’s streaming court tomorrow by logging on and registering for free. Just
click HERE to watch.
Click HERE to follow Badminton Europe on facebook for a streaming schedule of the live matches and live photo gallery from Brno.
Article and Image by Mark Phelan (Live in Brno for Badminton Europe)