General

Amir Levi in action in Ireland Para-Badminton International 2017 (photo credit: Badminton Europe / Mark Phelan)
Levi through to all 3 semi-finals in Dublin
Date: 6/22/2018 10:49 PM
Published by : Bobby Griffin (BEC)

Israel’s Amir Levi is the only European player through to the semi-final stages of the Irish Para-Badminton International 2018 in all 3 events, laying to rest the ghosts of 2017



Quarter Finals day at the National Badminton Centre started well for Levi, pair with teammate Nina Gorodetzky in the WH1-2 mixed doubles. Their opponents, Timo Villanen (FIN) and Fiona Christie (SCO) lacked the firepower to cause the Israelis any real anguish, whose consistency and shot making proved too good in the end. The game score, 21-16, 21-17.


In tomorrow’s semi-final, they go on to face in form Jeong Jae Gun (KOR) and Pilar Jaurequi Cancino (PER) and in doing so Levi goes one stage further than last year; undone by the world number 5 pair Dumnern Junthong and Pookkham Sujirat (THA).




Finnish luck on his side


In the men’s singles draw, Levi came up against Thomas Puska (FIN) who had topped Group F after defeating 5/6 seed Marin Rooke (ENG) yesterday. Rooke back just 4 weeks in training, following one year out with surgery, knocked Amir Levi out of the 2017 Irish International in the quarter final stage. 


The loss to Puska pushed the Englishman into the tougher quarter final against the number 1 seed and opened things up for Levi, who dispatched the Fin 21-12, 21-15 to seal a place into tomorrow semi-final against Malaysia’s Madzlan Saibon.




Read : Malkov aiming for top 20




Language barriers in the men’s doubles


Pairing up with Frenchman David Toupe in the men’s doubles provided tough opposition for the Russian pair of Konstantin Afinogenov and Iurii Sorokin. The match lasted just 24 minutes and finished 21-11, 21-11. 


Teaming up with Toupe provides the extra dimension of communication-issues for the Israeli in this tournament. The saving grace in tomorrow’s semi-final is they face another pair with the same problem in Martin Rooke of England and Thomas Wandschneider of Germany. 




In other news..


Headlining our previous articles this week at the Irish Para-Badminton International were England’s Isaak Dalglish and local hero Niall McVeigh, who both fell today in the SS6 men’s singles quarter-finals in straight games. England’s Jack Shephard and Krysten Coombs make it through to semi-finals in both singles and doubles.


Thomas Wandschneider (GER) is safely through to the WH1 men’s single semi-finals without dropping a game so far this week.


Oleg Dontsov (RUS) and Rikaard Nilsson (SWE) are keeping European hopes alive in the SL4 men’s singles, setting up semi-finals tomorrow against the 1 and 2 seeds from Asia respectively.


Megan Hollander (NED) will be feeling the pain tonight from a narrow 21-13, 19-21, 18-21 defeat to Indonesia’s Warinig Rahayu to prevent Dutch hopes for a gold medal at this tournament.


And one final word for the only European player left in the men’s SU5 draw at semi-final stage. Bobby Griffin, England’s SL4 teamed up with Kim Kiyeon of Korea in the men’s doubles and guaranteed themselves a medal this afternoon with a solid quarter-final performance over Russia’s Pavel Kulikov and Oleg Dontsov 21-16, 21-16.


It was difficult to interview Griffin, rest assured his excited expletives earlier suggest that he is pleased with his performance this week and will be giving it everything to reach the final on Sunday!




For a full list of the Irish Para-Badminton International draws and results this week click here

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