It was a great day in the Akita Masters in Japan today for the European competitors. 

First on court was Denmark’s Kim Bruun in the Men’s Singles. Bruun played the third seed Guangzu Lu from China.

In a tight first game, there was never more than two points between the two until the end, where Guangzu won the last two points to win 21-17.

- After the first game I didn’t panic because I knew I came to the good side of the court, Bruun says.

- The hall is very big so it’s very hard to get your attack going. You really have to work hard and be patient.

- Really good from my side

As the Chinese tired, Bruun found the strength to take the next two games 21-16 21-11.

- The match was really good from my side. I stuck to my game plan throughout the match. It was a long and hard match so I hope to still have some fresh legs for tomorrow. Physically my shape is good at the moment, so I believe in it for tomorrow, Bruun says.

Tomorrow, Bruun plays home favourite Minoru Koga in the round of 16.

Tough start for Jorgensen

In the opposite side of the draw, Danish star Jan O Jorgensen played a match lasting over an hour against Hsuan Yi Hsueh from Chinese Taipei. In a tight first game, Jorgensen came finally out on top 21-19. In the second, the lead changed several times, before Hsueh won the last four points to take the game 21-18.

In the third, in spite of being up 11-7 at the break, the Taipei player came back to lead 15-14, before Jorgensen summoned a final push for victory, taking the game and the match 21-17.

Jorgensen plays Japan’s Riichi Takeshita in tomorrow’s match.

Young Mixed pair put on good show

Young English pair Fee Teng Liew and Callum Hemming put together a great effort in the Mixed Doubles to take their more experienced opponents to three games. 

- It was our first time playing a BWF world tour tournament so we didn’t expect too much from it but I felt like we played a good match, especially in the second game. We had a lot of control over the Taipei pair however in the 3rd they came out strong from the start and we couldn’t match their sudden rise in speed, Liew says.

- There’s a lot to learn, how to keep our high level consistent as we play these higher level tournaments and be able to deal with situations like these. We could have handled the 3rd game better as I felt like it went a bit quick as we got surprised and didn’t know what to do. However a very good experience playing in Japan and definitely motivates us to keep training hard to reach these higher levels. It was a great experience playing in the big hall as all world class level tournaments are played in huge arenas so it definitely gets us adapting to all the different conditions that big arenas bring.

Full results and schedule can be found here