AUSTRALIAN OPEN 2016 Day 1 – A blistering performance

Just a few international veterans were on court along with local talent in the qualifying rounds of the 2016 Australian Badminton Open.

By Aaron Wong, Badzine Correspondent live in Sydney.  Photos: Badmintonphoto (live)

Meet the Guru

Examples of what true men’s singles players look like were modelled by India’s R.M.V. Gurusaidutt and Australia’s Anthony Joe. Both displayed excellent centre of gravity in their movement, compact stroke production, and reading opponents early.

With experience comes added assuredness in reacting to whatever an opponent throws back and the Indian, currently ranked 89th but having been inside the world’s top 20, revealed he is returning to strong form. Evidence of this was dispatching both his qualifying opponents in straight games.

“I feel I’ve become a maturer player,” assessed Gurusaidutt about his skills whilst acknowledging his ranking dipped since the last Australian Open until emerging on the other side of this development.

Highlight of Tuesday

Lukas Defolky and Anthony Joe played the classiest match of qualification day to decide who should enter the main draw. It began according to script with the energetic proactive style of the younger Joe trumping Defolky’s lukewarm delivery in the opening game, 21-11.

You have to read closely between the lines of his relaxed play to see that Defolky was always up to the task as he calmly evened matters in the second, 22-20.

Their deciding game gave spectators what they hoped for, a neck-and-neck scoreline of contrasting singles tempos where you’d hate for either not to go ahead but Joe survived Defolky snatching a lead again at the closing stages, 19-18. Ultimately, the younger left hander triumphed 21-19, largely by ceasing his constant error of lifting a bit short during mid-rally in the nick of time. Their match earned a sustained applause from the crowd.

“What I learnt from is to fight really hard through the blisters that started appearing during this match,” said Anthony Joe at the mixed zone later. He also confirmed that badminton is a career he intends to pursue.

Open to being ongoing

Danes Line Kjaersfeldt / Kim Astrup happily chatted about their mixed doubles partnership. “Back in the day [as juniors] we won competitions together” said Astrup matter of factly about the ease of the reformation and stunning upset of the 2013 World Champions on home soil seen last week at the Indonesia Open Superseries Premier (pictured left).

They admitted there are no long term goals for their mixed doubles arrangement but left it open to be ongoing: “It’s a way for us to get more court time at a tournament.”

Apart from providing extra warm up, Kjaersfeldt felt “mixed requires fast reflexes” which is something that can only benefit her singles game. If you didn’t already know about her focus on singles, you’d have mistaken her for an all court doubles specialist today.

Click here for complete Tuesday results