A turbulent day in the Pabellon Municipal Alcudia yesterday, as we make our way through to knock-out rounds of all events. And there were a few surprises in store!
The German Mixed Doubles pair Young-Chin Mi and Valeska Knoblauch had a wonderful start to the day in their WH1-WH2 last-16 match against Korea’s Choi Jung Man and Kim Dae Young. The 21-12, 24-22 victory got the atmosphere rising as local school children made up large crowds here in Alcudia. Saldy, the Germans could not carry that momentum through their quarter final this evening, undone by the 3/4 seeds from Thailand Dumnern Junthong and Pookkham Sujirat in straight games.
European result of the day has to belong to Sonja Haesler (SUI) in the WH1 Women’s Singles. The world number 20 came through a tough battle against strong Japanese opposition in Etsuko Kobayashi, ranked 11 places above her 17-21, 21-18, 21-18 in 55 minutes to set up a round-16 match this morning against Chiemi Ogata (JPN).
Read: English mixed and Danish doubles missed out on semi-finals
The withdrawal of the SL4 men’s singles world number 1, Lucas Mazur, provided the newly acclaimed top seed Sukant Kadam (IND) with a clearer run at the title, however he came up against a surprising performance from the young Russian Pavel Kulikov in a nail-biting 3 games that marginally went the way of the Indian in an exciting 21-18 finish.
Read: European Number 1 pulls out of International
In the most eagerly awaited match up of the day, the SS6 women’s singles world number 2 Rebecca Bedford (ENG) was once again drawn against Carmen Giuliana Poveda Flores (PER), in a repeat of the 2017 World Championship semi-final. Doing enough to make it through the group stages, Bedford’s 14-21, 21-12, 8-21 defeat to the Peruvian means she will now face Triple-World-Champion and teammate Rachel Choong in the semi-finals.
You can read about Europe’s hopes for medals at the Spanish Para-badminton International in our article earlier this week, International para-badminton stars launch their 2018 campaign in Spain
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