Anne Tran and Emilie Lefel had the home crowd on the edge of their seats as play drew to a close late in the evening at the Orleans Masters. The French were up against Bandaso & Kandow, the Indonesian pair who destroyed number two seeds Morozova and Chervykova of Russia in round 1.
The French took an easy opening game 21-13 but completely lost their way in the second with the Malaysians bouncing back winning by the same score line.
-There were a lot of long rallies and the shuttles are so slow that it is hard to get an aggressive attack. They managed it better in the second set where we struggled.
If the opening games were one sided the deciding set was the opposite. With never more than two points between the pairs the French did eventually seize control to lead 20-17. The Malaysians did fight back and with the crowd sensing a dramatic comeback Tran and Lefel finally sealed the deal winning 22.20 and advance to the quarter final.
-We were trying to hard at the end to finish the match. We were tired after such a physical match and we lost our patience just a bit. Luckily we got the winning point which was a great feeling after such a tough match.
Delrue & Palermo make it 2 from 2 for French girls
In the final match of the day in Orleans Delphine Delrue and Lea Palermo (pictured above) continued where Tran and Lefel left off and sealed a 100% record for the French women’s doubles pairs on day 3.
The French pair did not fail to deliver in front of their home crowd who stayed late into the evening to support the final French players of the day.
After a slow start the French took the opening game 21-18 before closing out the match with an easier 21-13 win in the second.
-We got a slow start as Delphine had not played yet in the hall. It was not our best game for sure and we struggled a bit given they are a new pair. Our concentration was also not what it needed to be during the game but we are happy to be into the next round.