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The second tournament day of the YONEX German Junior 2019 showed once again what an enormous level the Asian nations have in their teams. The European nations defended themselves to the best of their ability and were able to put in a few pinpricks here and there to withstand the dominance of the Far East.
Especially in the mixed doubles, China, Korea and Indonesia played powerful, nimble and almost perfectly. Joachim Anneberg and Singe Schulz from Denmark hold up the European flag and two wins allowed them to play their way into the quarter-finals.
From a German point of view, the women’s doubles are particularly pleasing. Both Nguyen/Michalski and Moszczynski/Petrikowski were able to secure a place in today’s round of sixteen. From 11:55 it will be about the popular quarter final places.
The men’s double competition already showed in the first rallies what level of play is required if you want to play your way to the front, if not even to the semi-finals or finals. Experience shows that the Asians with their excellent physical condition can play at a very high pace and put their opponents under pressure. But also here the Danes Joachim Annaberg/Marcus Rindshoj and Raum Espersen/Mathias Perdersen gave an excellent performance and are in the round of 16. But also the English doubles Jones/Yap and Easton/Van Leeuwen could convince.
In the men’s singles, the number 4 seeded Christo Popov from France gives hope for a European medal, even if he has to crack a “hard nut” from Malaysia today at 11:20 am.
It could be particularly one-sided in the women’s singles. There 6 athletes from China are about to make it to the round of sixteen and could turn the YONEX German Junior 2019 into the “small Asian Championships”.
But one thing is certain after two days of competition: In terms of fighting spirit, wit and absolute will, the European nations are in no way inferior to the Asian nations.