Germany's Marc Zwiebler wins his first international title since the European Championships gold medal two years ago with a 21-13, 21-18 victory over Dane Joachim Persson in Prague.
The 2014 Czech International, who returned to the Czech capital Prague after a several year's absence, concluded with its finals on Sunday. And right from the start, the spectators could see amazing badminton. The 31 year-old Joachim Persson, former world number 6, and his one year younger opponent Marc Zwiebler (pictured), whose career's highest world ranking was at 10, showed why they belong to the absolute best in Europe.
In their fifth match up, Zwiebler clearly took the lead in the first game winning it 21-13. The second game was tight but in the duel of both left-handers it was Zwiebler who came on top. The match lasted 37 minutes. "I have managed to win over my friend Joachim Persson in two straight games. It was a great week for me in Prague. Beautiful city, good food, nice people," Marc Zwiebler said after the final.
Michelle Li of Canada forgot about her yesterday's morning three games battle with Estonian Tolmoff and appeared very focused on the Sunday. She needed only 32 minutes to beat Ukrainian Marija Ulitina (pictured below) 21-14 and 21-17. Michelle Li became the dominant player of the 15.000 Dollars tournament as she also won, together with her partner Rachel Honderich, the women's doubles category.
In the all-Polish men's doubles final it was Wacha/Cwalina who celebrated the victory. They overcame their fellow country men Moren/Szkudlarczyk in two games 21-15, 21-15 to take another Badminton Europe Circuit title.
The Russian pair of Yartsev/Kosetskaya have been cruising through the competition with ease and the first game of the final suggested nothing different. But the Swedish team of Nordh/Fabekke came back strong in the second game and kept their momentum going on into the third as well, always leading by a few points, leading 17-13 in the rubber-game. But the Russians somehow managed to recover from the stumble and quickly jumped to 19:18. The most dramatic match of the five finals was then won by the Swedish duo as they kept calm to win the deciding last three rallies of the tournament.
The finals results:
MS: Marc Zwiebler (GER) - Joachim Persson (DEN) 21-13, 21-18
WS: Michelle Li (CAN) - Marija Ulitina (UKR) 21-14 21-17
MD: Adam Cwalina/Przemyslaw Wacha (POL) - Lukasz Moren/Wojciech Szkudlarczyk (POL) 21-15, 21-15
WD: Rachel Honderich/Michelle Li (CAN) - Irina Khlebko/Elena Komendrovskaja (RUS) 21-12, 21-17
XD: Jonathan Nordh/Emelie Fabbeke (SWE) - Anatoliy Yartsev/Evgeniya Kosetskaya (RUS) 18-21, 21-19, 21-19
Article and photos by Betty Kyselova.