XD - First round - French pair Gicquel/Delrue into the second tour , Asians are aiming higher this year

1/2 for French pairs. Thom GICQUEL and Delphine DELRUE, by winning their first match 21/12 24/22, are into the second round. Read more here.

On the other side, the Singaporeans did not need long to distance the scores. VILLEGER/TRAN ’s pair lost once to their opponents but this time they were determined to have their revenge. The Frenchman VILLEGER amazed the spectators with his accurate cross court shot at the key point 19/12 but the Asians finally took the first win. The French tried to rely more on their front net strategy and apparently speed up for the second game. Nothing seemed to be possible to stop the Lion City stars and they had the last word for this match: 21/12 21/14.

When asked about today’s performance, the French opened up to us “We didn’t get to train much for the mixed doubles and it’s true we are a bit disappointed, but we are sure we can come back to the challenge very soon."

Seeded number 3 for the tournament, the Tokyo Olympic silver medalists declared their victory within 30 minutes. “ We had a tougher game last time we met this pair, so we really prepared ourselves better and maybe that’s why we won today.” HUANG/ZHENG shared with us right after the match. The score: 21/11 21/12.

The new chinese pair, HUANG Dong Ping/FENG Yan Zh, defeated world number 1 Dechapol PUAVARANUKROH/Sapsiree TAERATTANACHAI. A surprising match, detailed here.