SINGAPORE OPEN 2013 R16 – Zwiebler making his Marc

Marc Zwiebler charged to the quarter-finals of the Li-Ning Singapore Open 2013 after creating one of the biggest upsets in the tournament. The Indonesia Open finalist fought his way through the match against first seed Du Pengyu from China and clinched the heartfelt victory 21-18, 12-21, 21-19.

By Serla Rusli, Badzine Correspondent live from Singapore Indoor Stadium. Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

The seventy-minute match saw Zwiebler (photo) attacking aggressively right from the start and the crowd was certainly wowed by the superb display of skills in the many long rallies as the two players tried to outsmart each other.

“I have never beaten Pengyu [photo]before but I knew I had the chance to. It was a great and fair game with a few good rallies.”

It seemed that what gave the German an edge was his determination. Despite pulling his thigh muscles and being advised by the umpire to retire from the match, Zwiebler decided to play on.

“I pulled my left thigh muscles in the second game and was contemplating pulling out. But now, clearly it’s good that I didn’t. I didn’t fight much in the second game because I wanted to reserve my energy to fight in the third game. And obviously it was the right strategy to use in this match since in the end I won,” said the very pleased Marc.

Marc is set to face Vietnamese hero Nguyen Tien Minh, who beat Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk in 17-21,21-5, 21-13.

Mixed upsets

Korea’s mixed doubles duos posed double trouble for the seeded players in Singapore Open 2013. Ko Sung Hyun and Kim Ha Na ousted the reigning Olympic champions, Zhang Nan / Zhao Yunlei and the tournament’s second seeds from the battlefield by beating them in straight games 21-15, 23-21.

Later on in the night, yet another unseeded Korean pair Shin Baek Cheol / Jang Ye Na created an upset in the tournament. They beat fourth-seeded Thai veterans Sudket Prapakamol (photo) and Saralee Thungthongkam in 21-19, 21-16.

“The Koreans played a lot faster than us, and when the points were so close, we made a lot of unforced errors,” commented Sudket.

As the Thai duo was eliminated for the match, Thailand is now left with 3 representatives in the tournament. The defending Singapore Open men’s singles champion cruised to the semi-finals to face Malaysian Chong Wei Feng. His compatriots are facing much trickier draws against the first seeds of the tournament. While men’s doubles Maneepong Jongjit/Nipitphon Puangpuapech will face formidable Korean pairing of Ko Sung Hyun / Lee Yong Dae,  Sapsiree Taerattanachai will face women’s singles top seed Li Xuerui.

Top seeds scare

Li Xuerui (photo) advanced to the quarter-finals of another Superseries event but not without her fair share of scare. She was so close to being stopped by Indonesian Belaetrix Manuputi, but eventually escaped the danger in 21-19, 18-21, 21-14.

Li’s compatriot Wang Yihan also faced a similar fate as she barely made it through to the quarter-finals after valiant fight from Carolina Marin which saw the Spaniard unable to finish the match in her favour. Wang Yihan won the match in 18-21, 11-21, 21-17 to face fellow Chinese Wang Shixian in the next round.

Click here for complete R16 results