Chinese rule at Yonex Open

The hall reverberated with calls in Mandarin and screams of ‘Chen Jin’. It seemed to me that I was somewhere in China, although I was actually in the heart of Sydney, at the Sydney Exhibition Centre in Darling Harbour, witnessing the men’s finals between Chen Jin and Tien Minh Nguyen at the 2012 Yonex Australian Open Badminton Championship.

The tournament was played from April 3 – 8 with an impressive draw of players (307 in all), including Ajay Jayaram and Kashyap Parupalli from India. There were many players from Australia too, but unfortunately both Indian and Australian players were knocked out, not even reaching the quarter finals of the tournament. The most impressive Indian player was Ajay, who went down fighting in a 3-set match against Wan Ho Shon. Although players came from Europe, Africa and South America, the domination of Asian countries, in particular China, Chinese Taipei, Japan, Malaysia, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam, was overwhelming. As an indication of their might, from the quarter finals stage onwards there was only one representation of a non-Asian country - Poland. Once they were eliminated, it was an all-Asian affair from the semi-final stage.

Some of the highlights of the tournament included former world champion Taufiq Haidayat of Indonesia. Taufiq showed why he was once the world’s number 1, as he possesses one of the best backhand strokes in the game. He executed his backhand strokes time and again, effortlessly and accurately. The crowd backed him and was sad to see him depart at the quarter finals at the hands of Sho Sasaki, last year’s winner. If I have to vote for the most devastating smashes in the singles games, it must go to Sho Sasaki. As a player of short stature, he leapt into the air and unleashed smashes at lightning speed which were rarely returned by his opponents. However, Tien Minh Nguyen overcame him at the semi finals through sheer persistence and sound strategy of minimising his chances to smash.

The singles winner, Chen