MD - First Round - Some Asians in, some Europeans out..

The Indonesian “daddies” had to kiss their French journey goodbye right after the first day. It was definitely one of the biggest surprises for the first day at the French Open. Their adversaries from Chinese Taipei were more prepared for this match.  16/21, 21/23,  these fearless young Taiwanese players put up quite a fight with their precision and strong will to win the game.

The very first match between these two goods in Paris. The world current Number one Men’s Double pair from Japan was trying to hold tight to their reign. 21/14 without much trouble for their first game. However, the Koreans came back stronger and showed a better capacity in their second set. 23/21, congratulations to HOKI and KOBAYASHI, right into next round. 

The audience said it all. Each time the POPOV brothers scored; it was a wave of hoorays from the home fans. This was the first time the two pairs had played each other. Young, and dynamic, the French were fearless towards the World Number 7 from India. After the first interval, the POPOV brothers started to shorten their score distance with the Indian national players. Toma’s canon-like smashes and Christo’s flawless defenses worked out just fine in their first set. 5 consecutive points brought the score back level:14/14, 16/16...The backhand kill from Christo and the smooth front net slices helped the brothers lead the score until 20/17, the final point took the breath of all the spectators away, so close to the victory…. 21/19 !!! The home players did not disappoint their supporters. 

Nevertheless, the tournament Number 7 seed was not ready to give their ticket away. Leading the game with 15/7, they did not let go their chance, 21/9, this second game was won by the Indians. Final round was crucial for all these four players. No more faults… hopefully…  it was such a pity that the POPOV brothers had to end their journey to this year’s French Open, but we are sure you will come back stronger! “ 

Other fantastic matches during the day: ONG Yew Sin / TEO Ee Yi from Malaysia beat the Scottish brothers Christopher and Mattew GRIMLEY with 21/18 and 21/13.  

The second French duo Lucas CORVEE / Ronan LABAR also tried their best to hold on to their match, but a bit lack of luck, they lost their match 16/21, 17/21 to the Malaysian players MAN Wei Chong/ Kai Wun TEE.  

The Dutch players Ruben JILLE and Ties VAN DER LOCQ lost to the Indonesians Leo Rolly CARNANDO/ Daniel MARTHIN 13/21, 18/21. 

And the last but one of the best matches:  Adam HALL / Alexander DUNN fought a one-way match and took out their Japanese adversaries Keiichiro MATSUI / Yoshinori TAKEUCHI 21/18, 21/15.  

With his new partner, LEE faced some serious challenges at the first set. Their attacks were strong, but the defenses from the Korean side was even stronger...  However, right after the interval, the Koreans started to make more mistakes in their game and this obviously left a good chance to the Taiwanese. The score was shortly controlled by the Chinese Taipei players but the more experienced Korean Pair took the victory into their pockets for this match.