Great day for Europe at the 2013 Malaysian Open Superseries as many European top shuttlers cruised through the quarter-final stage of the 400.000 Dollars event in Kuala Lumpur. Jan Ø. Jørgensen
(pictured) and Hans-Kristian Vittinghus of Denmark kept the European flag flying high in the men's singles category. Jørgensen beat Kashyab Parupalli of India in straight games as well as his compatriot Hans-Kristian Vittinghus who beat Suppanyu Avihingsanon of Thailand to move into tomorrow's quarter-finals. Despite losing to the fourth seed and former Yonex All-England Championship finalist Kenichi Tago of Japan, England's Rajiv Ouseph took the favourite to full distance and showed a great performance.
European Champion Tine Baun had no difficulties today in beating the Chinese Su Yu 21-18, 21-17. Baun will now face Tzu Ying Tai of Taiwan for a ticket in the semis. In the men's doubles, the Russian duo of Vladimir Ivanov/Ivan Sozonov showed one of their best career's performances as they beat the top Indonesian Markis Kido/Alvent Chandra in two games. Title holder Kamilla Rytter Juhl and Christinna Pedersen of Denmark reached the quarter-final stage by beating Germany's Birgit Michels and Johanna Goliszewski in two games. Kirsty Gilmour and Jillie Cooper of Scotland were close in creating a big upset. The British duo put up a great fight against the Koreans Koo/Yo only losing 20-22 in the rubber-set.
And in the mixed doubles category, Europe is still well represented by three pairs: Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen of Denmark, the current European Champions Robert Mateusiak/Nadiezda Zieba from Poland and Anders Kristiansen/Julie Houmann of Denmark all reached the last 16.
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Photos by BadmintonPhoto.