Irish International Championships

The Finals..... Scott Evans was defeated in the Yonex Irish International Mens's Singles Badminton Championship on Sunday, 7th December at Baldoyle Badminton Centre in front of a full house.

His opposition in the final was Rajiv Ouseph who is currently ranked 44 in the world. Ouseph recently won the

Scott Evans

Scottish Open Championship and is the current English National Singles Champion. Ouseph won in two sets; 21-5, 21-19. Scott had a weak start in the first set while Ouseph was calm, cool and collected. The second set was an entirely different story with Scott well in charge leading 8-1 at one stage. He was placing the shuttle a lot better and attacking when the opportunity arose. From the break in the second set, it was a point for point match with some amazing rallies. Scott put in a marvellous performance and supporters were treated to all the tremendous skills of the game.

Congratulations to all finalists......

Follow link to view all scores from Finals today

http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/matches.aspx?id=25894&d=20081207

 

Saturday

Scott Evans (World Ranking 52)has qualified for the Final of the Yonex Irish International Championship having defeated Carl Baxter (World Ranking 45), England in the Semi-Final this afternoon. This is the first time an Irish Singles player has qualified for the Final of the Yonex Irish International and it happened in true style in front of an enthusiastic home crowd winning in two sets; 21-19, 21-18. This is a tremendous feat as Baxter previously defeated Scott in the final of the Croatian Open.

Tomorrow, Scott faces the English National and current Scottish Open Champion, Rajiv Ouseph (World Ranking 44) in the Final where spectators are guaranteed a fantastic feast of world class singles play. The Finals will commence from 12.00pm.

Earlier, in the quarter final Scott beat Harry Wright, England, 21-15, 13-21, 21-11. In the Women's Doubles, last year's Irish International champions pair of Chloe Magee and Karen Bing were narrowly defeated by Paulien Van Dooremalen and Patty Stolzenbach, Netherlands in the quarter final.

Friday Overview

Today battle is joined in earnest as the main events kick off at Baldoyle. Badminton Ireland will again endeavour to provide a  realistic overview of what badminton fans should expect over the coming few days.

Men's Singles

The draw in this event has been opened out slightly by the withdrawal of top seeds Andrew Dabeka and Jan Ø Jørgensen however the winner of this event will still have to take out several tough opponents. In the top half of the draw a major battle is shaping between Denmark and Sweden with three successive matches between players from these countries. The expectation is that No.5 seed Hans Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark will prevail to the semi-final stage however this is not a  foregone conclusion. Emil Vind(Denmark) who recently defeated World No.8 Joachim Persson and the improving Henri Hurskainen (Sweden) recent victor over Vittinghus in the Norwegian Championships are two players who will be looking to make an impact.

Moving down the draw Rajiv Ouseph of England will be many peoples favourite to make the final as the former European Junior Champion is now beginning to fulfill his considerable promise and is a tough opponent for anyone in European badminton. Raul Must of Estonia is a tremendous fighter as is Delfs of Denmark, add in the highly talented Scot Kieran Merilees and Swedish based Indonesian Sartono Ekopranoto and some very interesting contests take shape.

In the top half of the lower part of the draw the explosive English player No.4 seed Carl Baxter looks dominant and his powerful style of play will be a real handful for his prospective opponents. Irish No.2 Lisburns Alex Sim (21) has drawn the very tough prospect of his Gentofte team mate Morton Kronborg(Denmark) who ground down top ranked European junior Bajuk in yesterdays qualifiers. Alex will need to try and take the initiative if he is to have any hope of victory as Kronborg can run all day at a high pace.

The bottom of the draw offers a very real chance of Irish progression with our top men's singles player and No.6 seed, Irish No.1 Scott Evans (21) on home ground and determined to produce a medal winning performance.  There is no one in the bottom part of the draw that Dubliner Scott cannot beat and he will be looking to build momentum from the opening against former top junior, Dutch medical student Lester Oey. The Netherlands player has shown some strong performances this season to date however Scott will be looking to build upon his recent victory over former World Champion Peter Rasmussen in the Danish league and push forward to the closing stages.

Women's Singles
Although top seed Juliane Schenk has withdrawn the Women's singles is the most powerful line up seen in an EBU tournament this season. There is tremendous strength in depth across the draw including two former top Chinese players Danish based Zhang Xi and Li Wenyan.

In the top half of the draw Zhang Li looks dominant with the main threats emanating from England's Jill Pittard and Camilla Soerensen of Denmark. Scotland's young talent Linda Sloan is also on display and will be looking to make an impact if she can get past the strong Bulgarian Linda Zechiri.

The bottom half of the draw contains our own Irish No.1 ladies singles player and No.8 seed Chloe Magee (20) from Raphoe, Co.Donegal. Chloe will be looking to recapture her Olympic form that caught the imagination of the Irish public although she has been handed a stern task from the outset. Chloe's opponent is the reigning European junior champion Karina Jorgensen and Chloe will need to draw upon all her renowned fighting spirit to produce a victory and compete for a medal winning position.

Danger players in the lower draw include Nana Brosolat Jensen (Denmark), Kati Tolmoff(Estonia) and number 2 seed Susan Hughes of Scotland, all equally capable of making the final.

Men's doubles
Denmark and Team GB have deployed some exceptionally strong up and coming pairs in the event and are expected to dominate what promises to be an explosive and fast moving experience for players and spectators alike. Irish expectations are limited in this event however with our best hopes of progression lying with our young full time pairing of Danish based Sam Magee (18) and Matt Gleave (22). They face Sweden Yngvesson and Indonesian Putra and will need to be on the pace from the outset. Favourites for the event are Danes Anders Kristiansen and Simon Mollyhus.

Womens Doubles

Chloe Magee & Karen Bing defend their title

Uniquely we have the defending champions in this event Chloe Magee and Yuan(Karen)Bing and expectations will be high amongst the fans that they can repeat last years sensational result and again lift an Irish title in front of a home crowd. The expectation is that the girls will progress to their first real test at quarter final level against Stolzenbach and Van Dooremalen of the Netherlands. The key will be the use the girls make of their home advantage and support to impose their authority leaving them well placed to take on likely Danish opponents in the final stages. A medal is real prospect if focus is maintained and the crowd and Badminton Ireland would be thrilled if the girls managed to progress to defend their title on Sunday.

Mixed Doubles
As in the men's doubles the main threats come from Denmark and across the water with Irish eyes drawn to the brother and sister act of Sam And Chloe Magee. Sam is shaping up to be one of Europe's finest young doubles players and Chloe has the pedigree and attitude to fear no one. They face a tough first game against Elbjoern and Hoelsbel of Denmark but if they pick up momentum anything is possible for the young Donegal pair. Favourites for the event are No.2 seeds Chemnitz and Roepke of Denmark.

Qualifiers Report - Thursday

Yesterdays qualification rounds went pretty much according to the form book and unfortunately no Irish players managed to qualify for the main draw in either the men's or women's singles. Commendable wins were recorded by Ronan McGee and Will O'Neill and there were a number performances that showed great potential for the future.

Badminton Ireland caught up with National High Performance Coach Jim Laugesen for his thoughts on the preliminary matches.

"Realistically yesterday was always going to be tough for us as all our players were part-time and they were predominantly playing full-time opponents. Both myself and Dan Magee spent the day providing support and advice to all the players and made good use of our video analysis equipment. From what I gather this is the first time this level of assistance was available to players and I was very impressed by the commitment on display. I want to particularly highlight the Irish performance of the day where Tony Stephenson lost 25-23, 22-20 to Dennis Prehn one of Denamrks top young players. Tony showed he has great potential and our challenge is to develop this going forward and bring it through into senior ranks. What I would emphasise to the players is that we have equal potential to other countries but it comes down to the training and fitness regime. It is only by combining all these elements that we will keep moving forward and I am firmly focused on bringing this about.

Sincere thank you to Gordon Sim of the High Performance Panel for providing us with reports and previews.


Preview of Qualifiers

Irish InternationalFinal preparations are taking place at Badminton Ireland Headquarters in Baldoyle in readiness for the start of tournament qualifiers tomorrow. Staff and helpers together with their colleagues from across Badminton Europe have worked hard to put together an exciting programme.

   Hopefully we have a chance of Irish medal success although nothing will be achieved without the strongest support from the badminton public and the highest efforts from our athletes. Please come along and support all our players and give our visitors a warm and sporting Irish welcome. The qualifiers are always extremely competitive with high class badminton from the outset.

Follow live results on http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=25894 

The tournament offers an opportunity to see some of the top European talent in all events and Badminton Ireland have taken a closer look at the qualifying competition in order to give an insight into reasonable expectations and games to watch.


Men's Singles
To qualify for the main draw in an EBU tournament is almost a tournament in itself particularly as many of the top emerging junior talents often compete in an effort to build up senior ranking points. Irish players have never found it easy to compete in the main draw of their home tournament and men's singles is an unforgiving environment to learn your trade. In the last few years only Scott Evans and Alex Sim have competed in the main draw with last years semi-final appearance by Scott the best achievement by some way.

In the qualifiers Ireland have 10 players competing and for any one of them to qualify or indeed win a game would be a considerable feather in their cap. The draw is sprinkled with several top emerging talents and and some strong senior players.

Group 1
This group has opened up slightly with the promotion of the strong Scottish player Gordon Thompson to the main draw. Ireland's representative is one of our top under 19 singles players Dubliner David Tutty. David's competitors include Norwegian U.19 No.1 Marius Fartum and top Swedish junior Peter Yngvesson. The winner of these two players is the likely group victor however David should be competitive in his performance.

Group 2
There are a number of powerful players in this group with Irish No.1 U.17 Lisburn's Ruaraidh Sim facing the challenging prospect of Slovenia's Mateuz Bajuk the current No.1 ranked European junior. 15 year old Ruaraidh will be looking to gain valuable future experience and be as competitive as possible. Dubliner Will O'Neill faces Bajuk's compatriot Aljosa Turk. Will be looking to produce a fighting performance in front of his home crowd and perhaps create an upset  Favourite for this group is the experienced Danish senior player Morton Kronberg.

Luke MooreGroup 3
Dublin's U.19 player Luke Moore has his work cut out in a group containing amongst others the very strong young English player Jamie Bonsel,  last weeks semi-finalist in the men's singles at Welsh International and favourite to qualify. Welsh junior and EBU talent team member 18 year old Jamie Van Hooijdonk is also on show in this group and Iceland's Helgason is by no means a weak player.

Group 4
Group 4 contains no Irish players and on paper New Zealand youngster Ashley Moss should win it however Ruponen of Sweden is also a contender for qualification.

Group 5
Irish players Kevin Kerrigan and Scott Burnside of Lisburn are in this group, Burnside has a fighting chance to upset Danish based Norwegian Philip How Aarhus in his first round match however the presence of experienced Icelander Helgi Johannesson and the powerful up and coming Scottish prospect Kenny Young make this a very tough group. Also worth noting is the presence of one of the best of the UK's U.17 players Dan Van Hooidjonk gaining valuable match experience. Young of Scotland is the likely winner in this group.

tony_stephenson_customGroup 6
Our representative in this group is Irish No.1 U.19 Tony Stephenson of Lisburn who has a very testing encounter with group favourite, Dennis Prehn of Denmark, last seasons Danish No.1 at U.19.  Tony has shown himself capable of raising his game to high standards and this is should be an exciting encounter.

Group 7
Dubliners Ronan Mcgee and youngster Adam Jermyn turn out for Ireland in this group with Mcgee having at least an evens chance of taking a match from the winner of Scotland's Martin and Holland's Van Bekkum. Young Adam will be looking forward to the experience of playing Sebastian Gransbo of Sweden in his home city. Gransbo is favourite for the group.

Group 8
Trinity College student Mark Donnelly one of our best young senior players has his work cut out in the final group with every single competitor of a high standard. He will look to be as competitive as possible with the likely winner of the group beinga  battle between Sweden's Wigardt and top English youngster Darryl Jacobs.


Ladies SinglesErin Keery
Previous national champion Queens University student Erin Keery is our only representative in qualifying facing a sudden death play off against the winner of Turner of Wales and Andersen of Denmark. Erin will be looking for a good showing and an entry into the very powerful main draw of the Ladies singles.


Tomorrow we will look at the prospects for Scott Evans and Alex Sim in the main draw of the men's singles and Chloe Magee in the Ladies. We will also take a closer look at our doubles pairs including previous champions and medal prospects Chloe Magee and Huang Bing and new doubles pair Sam Magee and Matt Gleave.