15 Sep 2007
Lee Chong Wei made it to the semi-finals of the Yonex Japan Open when every other Malaysian players failed to do so.. there were at least 11 singles players (9 men, 2 women) and 10 doubles teams (6 men's, 3 women's, 1 mixed's), yet only one player came through... :x
We almost had the starting time of the matches wrong.. luckily we still manages to get to the stadium around 11.10am.. The matches were held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium, Tokyo. We took the train to Yoyogi Station on the Yamanote Line and then changed to the Toei Oedo Line to Kokuritsu-kyogijo Station. The journey was about 30min in all.. The admission ticket was on the high side, in my opinion.. It cost each of us 3,500yen, which is about SGD46 or RM106!! When I was in Singapore, I was unwilling to pay even SGD20 to watch the Aviva Singapore Open and here I am in one of the most expensive cities in Asia and forking out almost SGD50... Talk about peer pressure.. :p
There were 6 of us who went to support.. Aishah, Nadia, Hui Ee, Jascee and Chua.. It was very telling as to who are 'enjoying life', so to speak ,in Japan among the scholars.. Seems like the 4 fellas from Waseda (me included) are the senang (means easy or free, in Malay) ones.. :p The rest of the Msian scholars in Todai are either too busy or missing in action..
When we got into the gymnasium, seats at the center have all been taken up.. There were a total of 5 courts being lied out but for semifinals, only 3 (Court No.3, 4 and 5) would be used.. The seats facing court no.4 were all filled up thus we could only sit at seats facing court no.5. There were several single seats among the crowded sections, yet as we need a total of 6 seats, we don't have much of a choice....
The matches started at 12pm sharp.. Two semi-final matches of the same categories were played simultaneously.. First were the mixed doubles... It was Indonesia vs Korea on court no.3, and China vs Denmark on court no.4. The Indonesia pair were the 2nd seed while the China pair were the 1st seed.. and I can easily see why.. they are the aggressive attacking-type. Both the guys of each team were good at placement of shuttlecocks on the court.. The Korean pair were beaten fairly easily by the Indon pair, while the Denmark pair tried to resist the Chinese attacks. But in the end it was the text book case of 1st seeded team vs 2nd seeded team for the finals the next day...
Then it was the Men's Single.. Lee Chong Wei, seeded 4th, was to meet with the tournament's 1st seed and the winner of Japan Open 2005 & 2006, Lin Dan.. Frankly, I wasn't very optimistic about his chances to reach the finals.. Luckily Lee proved me wrong.. :) The whole match took about 40 minutes.. It wasn't so much of who wins the point, but more of who gives away/lose the point.. Lin made lots of mistakes, either sending the shots out/into the net or made wrong judgment calls that allowed Lee to get points... In the end, it was the case of who made the least mistakes wins.. The other singles match was more exciting as the two Indonesia players have the similar attacking styles.. In the end, experience prevailed and Lee was to meet Taufik in the Finals the next day...
The Women's Single was okay.. It was Denmark vs China and China vs Korea.. The upsets continued for the Danish player, Tine Rasmussen.. She was unseeded and yet has beaten 3 Chinese players (although one of them, Xu Huaiwen is representing Germany), with biggest scalp being Zhang Ning, the 1st seed player in this tournament.. She was to play Lu Lan, the 7th seed in the semis.. And she won convincingly to match on to the finals against Xie Xingfang, who struggled against the Korean player, Jun Jae Yun..
On next were the double's. The first Men's doubles match was between 2 Indonesian teams, while the first Women's doubles match was between 2 China teams.. There can't be more of a contrast between these 2 matches... The men's match was fast-paced and action-packed.. trading smashes and jumping shots - fast and furious which ended in about 20mins.. while the women's match was slow and cautious which took more than half an hour...
I was looking forward to the next Men's Doubles match between the Indo-USA pair of Candra Wijaya and Tony Gunawan vs the Danish pair of L. Paaske and J.Rasmussen.. while the other Women's Doubles match was even slower and more draggy.. It was real entertainment watching this Men's Doubles match.. Although the Danish pair had the support of the Danish team and some Danish citizen in the crowd, it was the Indonesia-US pair that has the support of the crowd.. In the end, it became an all Indonesia (almost) affair for the Men's Doubles and an all China affair for Women's Doubles on sunday...
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