Polish stunner

Robert Mateusiak and Nadiezda Kostiucyz made a stunning impression by clinching their first ever Super Series title over double world champions Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir while Lee Chong Wei also signaled his return with a bang.

Six months ago, Nadiezda Kostiuczyk was at home, doing nothing. And hating to sit around while she could have been practicing as hard as ever, but a second hip injury performed in March meant she was to wait a little while longer before she could resume training – she had been out since the 2008 Olympics with a recurrent injury which forbade her to play.

Little did she know that she would enjoy an amazing evening in Hong Kong, less than 6 months after her second operation, she would be stepping on the highest step of a Super Series podium for the first time in her career.

The Polish pair of Mateusiak and Kostiuczyk were facing Nova Widianto and Liliyana Natsir – a pair they had never beaten in the past. Yet, Mateusiak thought they had their chances. “First of all, we talked about it and realized that except for one exception, we had never lost any finals before and even if those were not Super Series final, we took it as a good sign.

“Secondly, we had beaten this week the English pair of(Donna) Kellogg and (Anthony) Clark – even if he was obviously tired after his men’s doubles – but it was the first time, so, we believed we had our chances today,” hinted Mateusiak.

“For me, playing again is just amazing and like a lot of other people who have come back from injury, I am just happy to be on court and to be able to play. I do not take it for granted anymore, and then, it takes off the pressure from our shoulders,” added Nadiezda.

The Poles stayed very focus and were more consistent than their opponents throughout the game. The key of the match was certainly when the Indonesians led 20/18 and failed to convert. Instead, the Polish got back and scooped the first game 22/20.

It was then a whole different story. “They started feeling insecure; we could feel it after the first game. It’s was really the turning point I think,” said Mateusiak, still excited few minutes after the match.

The second game was even until 10/10, but with no real solution for the Indonesians, they lost track in the second part of the game, letting the Polish pair up by 6 points – the gap was then too big and Mateusiak kept hitting hard from the back while Kostiuczyk worked wonders at the net.

On their second match point, they scored for their first ever Super Series win, falling into each other’s arms while the fans were stunned.

Denmark was hoping for two Golds in Hong Kong. They will leaving the city with two silver instead as the world ranking was respected in both the singles and the doubles. There was not much difference between Peter Gade and Lee Chong Wei, but the Malaysian played a bit better at key points, on top of being lucky.

“In the third game, I was leading 3/0 and he came back thanks to three lucky shots with one behind his back. It could have gone the other way then and made a difference. But Chong Wei is one of the two best players in the world right now with Lin Dan, and I proved that I was not that far this week. I still have the motivation in me to win the big ones and I am overall satisfied with my performance this week. Now I need to get back to my family whom I miss and get ready to compete in the Super Series finals,” said Gade, after his 13/21 – 21/13 – 16/21 loss to the Malaysian.

Same fate with Jonas Rasmussen and Lars Paaske, who were mentioning the night before how one result from a teammate could affect the performance of the others competing the same day. It turned out to be true on Sunday as they failed to take their first title since the Yonex Japan Open 2008.

The first game against Lee Yong Dae and Jung Jae Sung went smoothly for the Danes, who applied the tactic which had seen the mighty Koreans not winning a medal in the Olympics last year. But after a fragile start, the Korean duo started getting back into the game, thanks to some inspired shots by Yong Dae on top of the power delivered by Jae Sung.

The second game went Korea’s way and the decider was a one sided story for the title holders, with Lee and Jung ending their journey in Hong Kong with a 13/21 – 21/15 – 21/8 success.

China clinched the other two titles, as expected as it was all China girls involved In the other finals. Wang Yihan was delighted to beat Jiang Yanjiao in 39 minutes with a score of 21/13 – 21/15, showing what kind of form she’s in few days before her home event in Shanghai – the city she was born in.

Olympic Champions Du Jing and Yu Yang, on their hand, failed to deliver in spite of being higher ranked than their compatriots Ma Jin and Wang Xiaoli. After a beautiful battle, the youngsters took it 16/21 – 21/19 -21/12.

The Chinese will all be present in this week’s China Open, including Lin Dan, while some of the heroes of this year’s Hong Kong open will go home, such as Taufik and Peter Gade, who will meet again before the end of the year for the Super Series finals.
Source : www.internationalbadminton.org