Germany’s Rick Cornell Hellmann and Young-Chin Mi won both their matches to top Group G and 
qualify to the knock-out round of the Spanish Para-Badminton International 2018 in Mallorca today.
The fifth seeds in WH 1 – WH 2 Men’s Doubles beat Spain’s Javier Fernandez and Roberto Galdos 21-11 21-11 and followed up with another straight-games win later in the day over Jordy Brouwer (Netherlands) and David Follett (England) to book their place in the Round of 16 against Finland’s Markus Lehto and Thomas Puska.
“It’s a very significant victory because this is just our second tournament together,” Hellmann said, following their result over Brouwer and Follett. “Now we can collect World Ranking points as a pair. The really tough opponents will be now onwards.
“Our first tournament together was the World Championships. Till then I had a French partner and he didn’t come to the World Championships, and Young-Chin had various partners and he wasn’t bound. He asked if I wanted to go to the World Championships with him. We don’t live in the same city – I’m from Berlin and he’s from Dortmund – we’re four driving hours apart but we can meet in the middle. We train together on weekends every two months.”
Brouwer and Follett also made the Round of 16, where they face the formidable fifth seeds Lee Sam Seop and Jeong Jae Gun (Korea). Others to enter the knock-out stage included top seeds Junthong Dumnern/Jakarin Homhaul (Thailand), second seeds Choi Jung Man/Kim Jungjun (Korea) and 3-4 seeds Chan Ho Yuen (Hong Kong)/Thomas Wandschneider (Germany).
Brouwer also qualified to the WH 2 Men’s Singles knock-out rounds, finishing second in Group F after a thrilling victory over France’s Laurent Bellia. Brouwer edged ahead of Bellia 20-22 21-16 24-22 to finish his group assignments behind the top placed Junthong Dumnern (Thailand).
Top seed Kim Jungjun (Korea), second seed Chan Ho Yuen (Hong Kong), 3-4 seed Amir Levi (Israel) and Luca Olgiati (Switerland) also qualified to the main draw, where they received byes into the quarter-finals.
In WH 2 Women’s Singles, second seed Emine Seckin (Turkey) topped Group B with three wins, ahead of Spain’s Marcela Quinteros. In the quarter-finals, Seckin faces compatriot Narin Uluc, while Quinteros takes on top seed Amnouy Wetwithan (Thailand). The other quarter-finals will see Rie Ogura (Japan) against Spain’s Esther Torres, and Peru’s Pilar Jaurequi Cancino against Japan’s Yuma Yamazaki.
In WH 1 Women’s Singles, the top two seeds – Switzerland’s Karin Suter-Erath and Thailand’s Sujirat Pookkham – stayed on course for a final meeting as they topped their groups and received byes into the quarter-finals of the main draw. Others who received byes included Korea’s Kim Seung Suk, Switzerland’s Cynthia Mathez, Israel’s Nina Gorodetzky and Germany’s Valeska Knoblauch.
SL 4 Men’s Singles saw a couple of tight contests. Top seed Sukant Kadam (India) was taken the distance in Group A by Russia’s Pavel Kulikov: 18-21 21-18 21-18. Russia’s Oleg Dontsov, the 5-8 seed, was involved in a 48-minute marathon against Germany’s Jan-Niklas Pott, with the Russian finally emerging victorious at 21-18 22-24 21-19.
Kadam faces France’s Hugo Saumier while Dontsov takes on Japan’s Shumpei Takeuchi. Pott, despite losing today, qualified to the Round of 16 where he will have a shot at upsetting second seed Shin Kyung Hwan of Korea.
The SS 6 Men’s Singles saw the favoured names progress into the knock-out rounds without much trouble. Top seed Krysten Coombs easily won both his Group A matches, over Russia’s Alexander Mekhdiev and Scotland’s Andrew Davies, while second seed and England compatriot Jack Shephard was likewise at ease over group-mates Andrew Moorcroft (Ireland) and Dhiego Vidal Guimares (Brazil).
The two English players received byes into the quarter-finals along with 3-4 seed Wong Chun Yim and Chu Man Kai (both Hong Kong). Another England player, Isaak Dalglish, qualified to the Round of 16, where he faces USA’s Miles Krajewski (featured image).
Coombs and Shephard also topped Group A in SS 6 doubles; they face Grzegorz Jednaki (Poland) and Shaun Dunford (England) in the quarter-finals. England’s Rebecca Bedford/Rachel Choong also made the quarter-finals of the doubles, the only women pair to do so.
BWF Newsletter
