As the final Grade Three tournament in Oceania for the year, the YONEX Bendigo International promised to deliver the thrills and excitement of high-quality badminton. With one last chance to prove themselves, players left everything on the court as they began their campaign on day one.
The first two grade three tournaments in Oceania didn’t quite go to plan for Dylan Soedjasa and Justine Villegas. After two early exits, they were determined to not let their opponents get the better of them today.
“Going into the match, our focus was just to stay stable,” said Villegas. In the last two weeks we did stay stable but we had phases where we were missing the game plan.”
And stay stable they did. The Kiwi pair took control of the game early and refused to waver even when pressed by their opponents, Chinese Taipei’s Lin You-Yu/Tsai Ruo Lin.
After 29 minutes, Soedjasa and Villegas stepped off the court with a spot in the Round of 16.
As they turn their focus to their next match, they have a few learnings from today.
“Taking from today, i think we just stick to our game plan of just keeping it simple and being consistent,” said Villegas.
“I think taking our time and having a bit of fun. Sometimes it can get a bit intense and we can get caught up, but if we take a step back and have a bit more fun we tend to do better,” added Soedjasa.
The young pair of Raphael Deloy/Yanxi Liu (NZL) also secured a spot in the next round after defeating Vincent Lawrencio/Sarita Suwanakijborihan 21-15, 18-21, 21-14.
A big moment from the day also came from Australia’s Muhammad Rafi Zafran Ferary and Sydney Tjonadi. Up against fourth seeds Rohith Mohankumar and Riduvarshini Ramasamy (IND), the pair put their body and minds to the test as the fought back from a match down to boot the seeds out of the tournament. Their 17-21, 21-17, 21-14 win secures their spot in the mixed doubles Round of 16.
Earlier in the day, in the men’s singles Round of 64, Australia’s Asher Jing Jie Ooi challenged third seed Edward Lau (NZL). Over 67 minutes, long rallies put the endurance of both players to the test. After three hard-fought games.Lau finally closed out the match to win 21-16, 18-21, 21-11.
In another battle, two young players faced off for a spot in the next round. Malaysia’s Erfan Majeed Hajibeigy took to the court against 18-year-old Ding Han Jin (SGP). Haijbeigy flew to an early lead, but could not finish the match quickly. As the minutes ticked on, Ding’s resolve only seemed to strengthen, and he forced errors to eventually take the win 16-21, 21-19, 21-7.
In women’s singles qualifying, a notable young player fought her way into the main draw. 13-year-old Amy Wang (NZL) had a strong showing against Australia’s Alphonsa Bijomon to move on in the competition.
