General

Meril Loquette has to settle for double bronze (Badminton Europe / Mark Phelan)
India dominate as Europeans fall in semi-finals
Date: 4/27/2019 8:17 PM
Published by : Bobby Griffin (BEC)

Heartbreak for Loquette and Mroz as they both fail to make the SU5 men’s singles final today, and together lose out in the men’s doubles.



Poland’s Bartlomiej Mroz has had better days. World number 4 and one of Europe’s most familiar faces on the para-badminton circuit, the 24 year old is a contender for most-well-travelled player. Rarely missing an international event, he already has so much experience. 


Yet 2019’s third para-badminton international comes to an end today for number 1 seed Mroz, and no amount of experience can help him handle the disappointment of another event with no win to his name. In fact no final to speak of once more although he is getting closer, falling in round of 16 in Turkey last month, quickly followed by a quarter-final in Dubai and now a semi-final in Uganda.


The SU5 men’s singles specialist lost today to India’s Chirag Baretha, number 28 in the world 23-25, 19-21. To rub salt deeper into the wound, Mroz paired up with Frenchman Meril Loquette in the men’s doubles and lost out in today’s semi-final to Baretha once more and Indian teammate Sumith Kumar Garg 21-19, 18-21, 18-21. Mroz had this to say..


“I’m not happy with my game so far this year. Physically I’m good, no injuries and I feel fit and strong, but my skill and tactics are letting me down. I need to admit that and I’m looking for solutions so that I can feel comfortable with my style of play. He played very well today, and I failed to control the speed of the shuttle. 


Meril and I struggled as a doubles pair at times, but it was our first tournament together and we can improve. I need to go home and regroup, to get ready for Canada in a few weeks and come back fighting!”




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To make matters even worse for two of Europe’s top SU5 men, Loquette seeded number 2 lost in his men’s singles semi-final to India’s Raj Kumar 20-22, 14-21 and with the addition of Rakesh Pandey, the 4 Indians dominate tomorrow’s SU5 men’s singles and doubles finals.


Although the draws are not yet out for tomorrow’s Ugandan finals, therefore unofficially it appears that men’s SL3, SL4, SU5 and SS6 singles finals tomorrow are also all-Indian affairs, SU5 men’s doubles as above, women’s singles SL3 and women’s SL3-SU5 doubles finals are entirely Indian affairs, suggesting that India will be hard to beat in the medal table.


Good news for Germany’s Valeska Knoblauch however following yesterday’s write up, she has made it through all 3 semi-finals today to give Europe hope for a triple gold medallist in Uganda. 


Double-Gold hopefuls include Frenchman Guillaume Gailly, Scotland’s Mary Wilson, Emine Seckin from Turkey and David Toupe from France. 




The Uganda Para-Badminton International 2019 continues this week. Look out for updates and results each day on tournament software here with this link.

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