Nozomi Shimizu and Michael Owen may have made their international debut as a pair at the YONEX South Australia International today, but they are no strangers.
Teammates at NBC, they have spent months alongside each other in training, and already know how each other think.
This proved to be the key as they took on Korea’s Choi Se Young/Gong Yeo Jin in the opening round of the mixed doubles today.
“We train together all the time, we play together more often than we actually play with our other partners,” said Owen.
“When I saw we were playing Korea I was a bit nervous,” added Shimizu, “but our communication on the court was really, really good today.”
Today also was a first for other athletes, including South Australia’s own Catrina Tan.
When she took to the court today, it marked her first international outing since the VICTOR Oceania Championships in Geelong in 2024, where she placed third in the women’s doubles.
“I wasn’t expecting too much today” said Tan. “It was great for my first tournament back to be right here at home in Adelaide.”
Elsewhere on the courts, two of our region’s rising youngsters took to the court.
Australia’s Smrithi Adepu and Om Neelam stepped on court fresh off the plane from their Youth Olympic Games campaigns in Dakar, Senegal.
Up against stiff competition in Lee Da Hyun (KOR), the young player Adepu was pushed from the beginning, and while she didn’t take the win, she had the opportunity to reflect on what has been a pivotal year for her development.
“It was an incredible experience (at the Youth Olympic Games), I learned so much,” said Adepu. “It was also great at World Juniors, seeing the top Junior players in the world compete gave me a new perspective. Up next is Melbourne before I go to Thailand for the training camp with Badminton Oceania.”
Neelam was also pushed the entire way. Up against Malaysia’s Chung Li Eric Choo, the lead continued to change throughout the entire three-game match. In the end, Choo edged out the Australian 21-13, 17-21, 21-16.
Other Australians secured their spot in the next round.
- Top XD seeds Rio Agustino/Priska Kustiadi dominated against compatriots Shih-Yuan Lim/Tianna George 21-10, 21-6.
- Ricky Tang remained composed to win 21-11, 21-18 over Finland’s Elmeri Lybeck.
- Jayden Lim/Victoria Tjonadi powered to a 21-10, 21-11 win over Ida Bagus Putu Putra Asan Wibaya (INA)/Jane Gao (AUS).
- Timothy Sentosa refocused to take the win against Malaysia’s Jun Hui Ong 21-15, 12-21, 21-13.
