MS - Day 2 : AXELSEN retired, MOMOTA on fire

After ANTOSEN’s elimination of yesterday, it was time for the 2 best badminton players Kento MOMOTA and Viktor AXELSEN to begin a new week of competition. They had different fates. It took 3 sets and an epic battle at MOMOTA to beat Srikanth KIDAMBI whereas AXELSEN had to retired. In the afternoon, LEE Zii Jia has been beaten by LOH Kean Yew from Singapore. CHOU Tien Chen qualification can also be witnessed.

The Malaysians avoid their country fellow’s trap

100% Malaysian match on court number 4. The well-known GOH V Shem and LOW Juan Shen were challenging seeded number 4 Aaron CHIA and SOH Wooi Yik. The world number 8 were on the verge to “easily” win the first set when they were leading 20/15. But the finalist of the Thailand Open and his partner came back 20/20. Despite their effort, Chia and Soh finally won two more points : 25/23. The gain of the set gave them great confidence in their shots. Indeed, the next set did not last long : 21/12.

In the middle of the afternoon, Takuro HOKI and Yugo KOBAYASHI (N.12, Japan) obtained their ticket for the next round after beating the French pair Fabien DELRUE and William VILLEGER (N.73). No suspense during the first set since the seeded number 8 imposed their speed to the rallies to gained the set in 12 minutes : 21/9. Second set was tougher than the first, supported by the whole stadium, the French team lead at the interlude 11/9. Stronger in the mid-court battle, the Japanese came back to get their ticket to round 2 : 21/19. Despite the defeat, the French seemed happy to be able to compete with a top 15 pair : “Happy about how what we did today. A bit frustrated on how we started the match. We were very stressed, we did not do what we did during the second set to bother them. Nevertheless, happy to play such a pair and to see that we have the level to compete with them”.

The seeded number 5, Satwiksairaj RANKIREDDY and Chirag SHETTY (India) had some difficulties to win against LEE Jhe-Huei and YANG Po-Hsuan (Chinese Tapei). A bit more than 50 minutes and 3 sets (21-18 17-21 21-13) to join their country fellows ARJUN and KAPILA who qualified a few hours earlier.

AHSAN and SETIAWAN played strong

The seeded number 2, Mohammad AHSAN and SETIAWAN (Indonesia) were facing Keiichiro MATSUI and Yoshinori TAKEUCHI N.45, Japan). A tight first set with several ties. Using their experience, the 2019 World Finals winners took the first set : 21/19. Controlling their mid-court shots attacking when they had to, the two Indonesians were ahead at the interlude (11/8). However, the Japanese came back and had 2 sets opportunities. Thanks to their strong defense, the Indonesians finally won the match (21/19 23/21) : “Tough game today, Japanese are not easy to play. It was our first match here but we felt comfortable. I hope tomorrow we will play even better.” They will face LU Ching Yao and YANG Po Han (Chinese Taipei) tomorrow.

Their country fellows and world number one Marcus Fernaldi GIDEON and Kevin Sanjaya SUKAMODJO (Indonesia) will play their first match here in Paris against Mark LAFMFUSS and Marvin SEIDEL (Germany), since they pass the first round by WO.