We reached the venue about 20 minutes passed 10, thinking that we were early.. but it turned out that the stadium was opened since 10am.. After getting our tickets (3,500yen for adult), we went into the stadium looking for good seats.. Unfortunately, the best we could find was slightly to the right of the courts that were going to be used..
There were a lot of local people as there were several Japanese players/teams who made it into the Semi-finals.. Quite a couple of them were equipped with sophisticated cameras and/or video cameras.. As usual, there were some activities for the audiences before the matches start.. some get to spar with the Japanese women and men doubles' team and some were trying to hit specific targets with their smashes..
The matches started at 12pm sharp.. Court 2 and 3 were used for today's matches.. As flashes were not allowed, I decided not to take any photos, instead, I took videos.
On Court 2 was the women singles' match between Wang Yihan and Tine Rasmussen. Rasmussen was a unseeded player who won the tournament last year, so this year she started off as one of the favorites and were seeded No.2.. And her opponent was an unseeded up-and-coming player from China..
Unfortunately, Rasmussen was unable to keep up with the pace and variety in play of Wang and lost the match.. and personally I think that the 9-year age gap between the players did make a difference.. as Wang played 50 minutes to win her ticket into the Semi while Tine took only 25 minutes to dispose of her Hong Kong opponent the previous day..
At the same time on Court 3 was the mixed doubles' match between the seeded No.1 from Indonesia team versus Korean team.
It was an fast paced and exciting match that went into the rubbers. In the end, the Indonesia team of Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir justified their seeding and went on to the finals tomorrow..
Next on Court 2 was the men singles' match, in which Japan's Kenichi Tago who had beaten China's Chen Yu (seeded No.8 in this tournament) earlier would meet Sony Kuncoro of Indonesia (seeded No. 2).
The Japanese youngster has potential but today wasn't going to be his day. Sony was very relaxed and was playing to his own rhythm.. Even though he too made quite a number of mistakes, but there was never a doubt that he was in control of the match.. Sony won the match in less than 40 minutes..
One of the "interestingly peculiar" things that happened during this match was the presence of a "cheering squad".. This was the name I gave them.. They were a bunch of guys in black suits and a lady with trumpet who would stand up between service and lead the crowd to cheer for the Japanese team.. It is quite weird and very hilarious to say the least, at least to me..
Because of this "distraction", no one was really paying much attention to the match played on Court 3 at that time.. It was another mixed doubles' match, this time between Thailand and Indonesia. There was a small group of Thai supporters who came with 2 huge flags that they waved around before the match started and 2 sets of drums.. they were making more noise than the whole stadium combined!!! :) Unfortunately, the Thai team lost. Thus tomorrow's mixed doubles final will be an all Indonesia affair..
After Sony won his match, it was the highlight of the day, for the Malaysians who were there at least.. :) :) Lee Chong Wei was going to play against Joachim Persson, the Dane who beat Taufik the day before.. We were all expecting an exciting match..
In the end, the match-up was quite boring.. Either the Dane was too tired after his hour-long battle with Taufik during the Quarter-finals or he was injured (he was kinda of limping, or there was something wrong with his left foot, I think), he was never a threat to Chong Wei.. Chong Wei was even leading 9 - 0 in the first game..
In the end, Chong Wei wrapped up the match in 20 minutes..
On Court 3 was the other women singles' match between HK's Zhou Mi and China's Lu Lan, seeded 7 and 1 respectively.
Lu won the first game but her opponent caught up in the 2nd and Zhou went on to win the final game taking almost 50 minutes in total. With the obvious absence of the Chinese fans, there wasn't much cheering for the Chinese players..
The main highlight for the local was the next match on Court 2, the women doubles. The first seeded Japanese team of Miyuki Maeda and Satoko Suetsuna was to meet a rookie pair from China, Cheng Shu and Zhao Yunlei.
Even with all the "synchronized and organized" cheering provided by the cheering squad, the Japanese team kept making simple mistakes and error line calls that, unfortunately, cost them their ticket to the Finals..
Over at the other court, a battle between 2 men doubles' teams from Indonesia was being played. True to Indonesian style, both teams were playing a fast and furious game with lots of jumping smashes, fancy returns and fast exchanges of shots.. The unseeded team won the match, in the end..
The last game to be played on Court 2 also involved a Japanese team. It was the other men doubles' Semi-final match, with the 2nd seeded Danish team (Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen) pitting against home team of Keita Masuda and Tadashi Ohtsuka.
The Danish pair wasn't affected by all the cheering lead by the cheering squad.. the slightly-younger Japanese pair put up a good fight but in the end, the Danes won their match (21-17, 21-16) within 40 minutes..
While over at Court 3, the last match of the day was the 2nd women doubles' match. The Malaysian pair, seeded 4th, was to meet the 2nd seeded Indonesian pair.
After winning the first game comfortably, the Malaysian pair lost the 2nd game as fatigue seemed to be setting in. Even though both the Indonesian players had played in the mixed doubles' matches earlier, the Malaysian pair seemed more lethargic.. Luckily, the Malaysian pair persevered and won the rubber game in less than 40 minutes to book themselves a ticket to tomorrow's finals!! :) :) :)
Side-note:
One thing that I noticed since last year was how quiet the Japanese is while watching these matches.. Every time a good or bad shoot was made, no one made any sound or let out a sigh/cheer.. Everyone was soooooo subdued.. or personally, I would take it as repressed..
In my personal opinion, how sad can it be that you need a cheering squad to lead the cheers when you should express your support by letting out some noise/sound to show your encouragement or disappointment SPONTANEOUSLY!!
Yet even with the presence of the cheering squad, the locals didn't really put in much effort in their cheers at all.. Comparatively, see how much fun my fellow Malaysian were having during one of these short cheering "sessions" in between breaks.. :)
Are the local people that "shy"?? or just repressed?? Even the kids or teenagers didn't make much noise.. :x Maybe some people might see this behavior as being civilized or cultured, but to me, they are just suppressing their emotions.. and that can't be too healthy for a nation, don't you think??
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