While the first half of the opening day of the Hylo Open 2021 was not short of surprises, the evening matches also had some intense encounters and an upset that would have one of the clear home favourites saying goodbye to the tournament on the first day.

Christopher Grimley/ Matthew Grimley would not let Germany’s big names stop them from advancing onto the next stage. The twins were facing home favourites Mark Lamsfuss/ Marvin Seidel, who they had met earlier this year at the European Championships. 

- Our rhythm was much better today. Last time we played them, we got quite a good lead and we thought we could win, but then they came back strong. We just had to stay relaxed and stick to the game plan, and we did that really well today, Christopher Grimley said.

- Last time I think we made the mistake of relaxing on the first game. We knew they were going to come out strong, so we came out stronger, Matthew Grimley said.

It was an intense three-game encounter in Kyiv and this time, it almost got to the same point. The Scottish duo won the first game 21-19, but the German pair were not ready to give up just yet and tried their hardest from stopping the Grimleys from getting the win. Their efforts were not strong enough, as the twins won the match after a close second game, 24-22.

- We are really happy with the win. We came out today hoping to play a good game. We knew Mark and Marvin had been playing really well recently, so we knew it was always going to be hard game, Matthew Grimley said.

Germany will be missing one more of their strongest players. Max Weisskirchen was going to face India’s Sourabh Verma tomorrow, but the German men’s singles player had to withdraw from the tournament due to an injury.

The second half of the day also had many European players trying their hardest to secure a win to continue their journey at the event in some intense three-game encounters. Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke faced Ajay Jayaram, India, and despite Jayaram bouncing back on the second game, the Dane counterattacked to take the win, 21-14 19-21 21-16.

Another Dane that was up for the challenge was Victor Svendsen. He met with Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Thailand, in what started with a not-so-good result from the Danish player. Yet, Svendsen managed to stop the Indian player with a tight result in the second game, but Vitidsarn eventually took back control with a victory, 21-8 26-28 21-16.

Debora Jille/ Cheryl Seinen were one of the last on court today at the Saarlandhalle in their encounter with Chinese Taipei’s Hsu Ya Ching/ Hu Ling Fang. The Dutch pair lost the second game in what was a close challenge, but closed the tournament’s busy day with a victory, 21-17 20-22 21-13.

The three Centre of Excellence players taking part in the Hylo Open 2021 were playing today to try and advance onto the next round. However, despite their efforts, none of them made it. 

Katerina Tomalova could not win in her encounter against Lianne Tan, while Martina Repiska could not stop history repeating itself by losing against Michelle Li, just as it happened in the Tokyo Olympics. Felix Burestedt, who played against number four seed Wang Tzu Wei, also lost his match.

- I didn’t really find a solution, and I made many mistakes. I tried to upper my pace because I was just a bit behind.I haven’t really been able to play so well in the last tournaments, but I’ll just continue to work hard and hopefully I will get to turn it around, Burestedt explained.

- The key was to play in a high pace and to wait for the right chance to attack, but I think I was not very patient today and I did a lot of mistakes, so it did not really work out, Repiska explained.