Singapore Open 2005 Upset

Gu Juan, probably around 15 years old, imported from China about 2 years ago, caused a major upset in the Women's Singles Qualifying Round.

Wearing Singapore colours, the diminutive Gu Juan shocked the audience in this morning's qualifying rounds 1 and 2 by defeating opponents much higher ranked than her.

In Round 1 early this morning, she defeated Malaysia's No.1, Wong Mew Choo, 6-11, 11-3, 11-4 in 40 min. Who would have thought that she could even take one game off Mew Choo, who displayed such fine form during the recent Sudirman Cup? In Round 2 played this early afternoon, she stopped short the advance of the much taller and bigger build Dutch girl, Rachel Van Cutsen, also in three games, 7-11, 11-8, 11-6 in 44 min.

Although I missed the first match, I witnessed the second and was delighted to see how such a young girl was so calm in the court and was winning many points at the net with her dexterity. The fact that despite losing the first game in both matches, she came back to take the remaining two games. Much credit goes to her more superior fitness. Although lacking in height as she has not fully developed yet, she covered the court well and pressured her Dutch opponent into making many unforced errors.

Tomorrow she will meet Zhou Mi at 2.15 pm. Naturally she will lose, but how many consolation points can she gather, I wonder?

Of all the young girls and boys who took part in the qualifiers, only Gu Juan was outstanding. The boys, Derek Wong, Chew Swee Hau and Aaron Tan did well to beat their Round 1 opponents but in Round 2, only Aaron showed some glimpse of doing better when he lost 10-15, 15-11 and 6-15 to Japan's Ohtsuka Shinya.

As Gu Juan was the only qualifier to advance to the main draw, I shall show a pic of her participation in last year's Cheers Asian Satellite Championships:

 

Results & Live Scores

As I will be at the SIS watching the Preliminary Round 1 proceedings from tomorrow morning till late evening, I hope that you can enjoy indirectly with me by accessing the results and live scores to keep updated as follows:

Results:

http://www.singaporebadminton.org.sg/horizon/110897649405ibsi05res.htm

Live Scores (Aviva Website):

http://www.singaporebadmintonopen.com/en/news/

 

Well then, I think you are the gentlemen I spoke to during that match. We were both seated right in front and you were using a Canon ... I thought you were from the press, since you had such impressive instruments but you didn't wear any badge.

On this second day I did not carry my camera because I had the misfortune of being stopped by a young lady usher on the first day who wouldn't allow me to bring in my camera despite my protest. I told her that I had taken photos without the flash at last year's Open but she was adamant that those were her instructions. She must be an inexperienced greenhorn. Worst, she said they could not accommodate my camera and bag at the counter and that I had to rent a locker to safekeep my cam! Imagine having to pay to lock up your cam at such an event!

Bad Luck on the first day. I thought I will have to forego pic taking at this memorable Open, since so many badminton stars will be taking part. But, after having verified with storkbill and the other ushers again, I will bring along my cam for the third day.

No, ants was not at this Open. He's gone back to KL. But his pics reminds me of the ones taken by storkbill. The quality of the images seems similar.