Saarbrücken. Marvin Seidel and Mark Lamsfuß missed the second round on the opening day of the HYLO Open 2021. While some other top seeded players already had to go home, the remaining German players will play tomorrow.
First-class rallies, stumbling favorites and loud Indonesians in the stands: The start of the HYLO Open 2021, which will be held under a new name this year as the BWF World Tour Super 500 tournament, had a lot to offer. Until next Sunday, November 7, the world's badminton elite will be taking up their rackets in the Saarlandhalle in Saarbrücken and will be fighting for a total of 320,000 US dollars in prize money. This week, badminton fans can look forward to performances by top seed Chou Tien Chen (TPE) and singles specialist Ratchanok Intanon (THA), who won her opening match with a commanding 21:9/21:10.
Seidel and Lamsfuß fail again in the first round
In the men's doubles, however, hopes of a good performance by two German players were buried early. Like last year, the duo Marvin Seidel/Mark Lamsfuß already failed in the first round. Against the Scottish twins Christopher and Matthew Grimley, who are also teammates of the two Germans at the 1st BC Wipperfeld, the favorites lost in two sets with 19:21 and 22:24. The local heroes, seeded seventh, never found their way into the match and expressed their frustration after the end of the match: "If we had played our usual game, we would certainly have made it into the second round. Unfortunately, we acted much too slowly, made too many mistakes and had a very weak day." Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
While the spectators will have to do without the two fan favorites in the second round, the other German athletes Yvonne Li, Isabel Lohau, Linda Efler and Jones Jansen will not take part in the action until tomorrow, Wednesday. In addition to last year's finalist Li, who will face Iris Wang, the two German mixed pairs also have two tough challenges ahead of them: the duo Jansen/Efler will meet the British third seeds Marcus Ellis and Lauren Smith. The task will be no less difficult for the well-rehearsed mixed doubles team of Lamsfuß/Lohau: They will face the seventh seeded Tang Chun Man and Tse Ying Suet (HKG). The women's doubles Efler/Lohau, meanwhile, already had the pleasure of advancing to the next round, as Spain's Azurmendi and Corrales had to cancel their participation in the tournament. Unfortunately, the same fate befell the three-time German champion in the men's singles: Max Weisskirchen did not get fit in time after an injury in the groin area and has to miss this year accordingly. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
Auch Vorjahressiegerin Gilmour scheidet früh aus
While the majority of the German badminton elite is still fighting for a place in the second round, the tournament is already over for some top players after the first round. Among others, last year's winner Kirsty Gilmour was quite surprised: After a strong start and a ten-point lead, the Scot lost the first set against Aliye Demirbag (TUR) and did not find her game back in the second set either, so that she finally had to admit defeat with 19:21 and 15:21. Accordingly, Gilmour was disappointed about her performance after the total of 38 minutes: "I was far from my best game and simply had a really bad day. It's a great pity that I couldn't build on last year's performance."
In addition to Gilmour, the third-seeded women's doubles team of Chloe Birch and Lauren Smith from England and the fourth-seeded mixed team of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying from Malaysia also had to retire early. Frenchman Toma Junior Popov, on the other hand, fared much better, losing out in the doubles with his younger brother Christo, but he showed his usual strength in the men's singles, advancing to the second round against Israeli Misha Zilberman with 21:17 and 21:18. The 23-year-old was visibly relieved afterwards: "It was a really strange match for me. Misha obviously knew how to act against me, I couldn't really play out my speed in large parts of the match. So I'm very happy that I was able to win smoothly in two sets."
Tomorrow, Wednesday, the tournament will continue with the remaining pairings of the first round starting at 9 am. Besides the German players, the other tournament favorites Chou Tien Chen, Marcus Gideon and Kevin Sukamuljo as well as Gabriela and Stefani Stoeva will enter the match.
