Day 2 in New Delhi provided one of the unexpected days in the history of the Super Series as countless seeds fell in almost every event today, from top seeded Prapakamol and Thoungthongkam in the mixed doubles to Tine Baun in the women’s singles.
The top three seeds in the men’s singles all survived their second round matches in two games to progress into the last 8, with Lee Chong Wei taking on Indian qualifier Sourabh Verma who defeated the 7th seeded Kenichi Tago in three games to reach the quarter final. Peter Gade takes on his 3rd Japanese player this week in Takuma Ueda in tomorrow’s quarter final, with Gade’s victory over Sho Sasaki in his second round match. Taufik Hidayat takes on the 6th seeded Park Sung Hwan in his quarter final match after the 2nd seed won his second match in two games to reach the last 8.
Tine Baun’s chance to claim victory after Saina Nehwal’s early departure lasted just one day as the 2nd seed lost out to Singapore’s Chen Jiayuan in two games, who goes on to play Sayaka Sato of Japan in the quarter final. Bae Youn Joo of Korea becomes the highest seeded player left in the draw and faces a tough task in the quarter final against Yao Jie, seeded 7th this week. The top half of the draw has been decimated to just one seed in Yip Pui Yin as 5th seeded Eriko Hirose and 6th Sung Ji Hyun both crashed out today to unseeded players.
The men’s doubles has faired well in comparison to other events with 6 of the 8 seeds making the quarter final stage, with the biggest name to crash out to day being the 2nd seeded Ahsan and Septano losing to team-mates Septura and Pratama. Indian hopes also ended with 8th seeded Thomas and Kumar losing out to another unseeded Indonesian pair in Sugiarto and Wirawan to reach the last 8. Top seeded Koo and Tan started off with a routine two game victory, but their biggest test to date will be in the last 8 against Cho and Kwon of Korea.
Just three seeds remain the women’s doubles event as the second round claimed it’s share of casualties today, with the exception of the top two seedings from Japan. Maeda and Suetsuna safely progressed in two games to set up a quarter final against unseeded Koreans Jang and Kim whilst 2nd seeded Fujii and Kakiiwa were just as clinical to set up match against Jung and Kim, also of Korea. 4th seeded Jauhari and Polii are the only other seed left in the draw and take on the Malaysian pair of Chin and Wong in their quarter final match.
Sato and Matsuo claimed the biggest shock of the mixed doubles this week with their two game victory over top seeded Prapakamol and Thoungthongkam to reach the last 8. Widianto and Marissa are rolling back the years this week to reach the last 8 where they will take on their Indonesian counterparts, 4th seeded Ahmad and Natsir for a chance to reach the last 4. Second seeded Anugritayawon and Voravichitchaikul safely reached the last 8 with a two game victory and will take on the 5th seeded Chan and Goh of Malaysia who needed three games to defeat their unseeded Indian opponents Dewalkar and Gadre to reach the quarter finals.
Day 2 Results:
India’s main chance of success in their first Super Series event took a massive dent on the opening day of play with top seeded Saina Nehwal crashing out in the last match of the day to Ai Goto of Japan.
There were shocks in the men’s singles also, with 4th seeded Boonsak Ponsana crashing out as well as 5th seeded Simon Santoso being losing out on the opening day of play. There were no such problems for Lee Chong Wei who progressed in two tight games against Ajay Jayaram whilst Taufik Hidayat had little problems in reaching round 2. Peter Gade struggled through in three games against Kazushi Yamada and takes another Japanese player in Sho Sasaki in the second round.
The weight of a nation lay on Saina Newhal for the second time in less than a year but this time it was far from the fairytale ending with her 21-17, 21-19 loss to Ai Goto stunning the crowd at the end of play this evening. The seven other seeds progressed with varying results, with 2nd seeded Tine Baun needing three games to defeat Xing Aiying of Singapore. Yip Pui Yin and Eriko Hirose are the main beneficiaries of Nehwal’s early departure, with the top half of the draw opening up.
There was limited action in the doubles events on the opening day, with Sato and Matsuo setting up their second round match against Prapakamol and Thoungthongkam in the mixed doubles. Marissa and Widianto are also through to the second round in the mixed doubles after defeating Fujii and Hashimoto of Japan.
Day 1 Results: