Our representative Waikato players were in action on day two at the YONEX Waikato International 2019 as they were battling for quarter-final spots.
Waikato rep and aspiring under-17 national player, Amreen Virk, was taking part in her first ever international event this year. She was up against strong Chinese opposition in the women’s singles, but she put the opportunity down to great experience for a successful badminton career in the future.
- Wang Siqi (CHN) vs Amreen Virk (NZL) 21-3 21-3
“It’s good to be playing at a much higher level against players from a different country to see where I stand. I want to get used to being here on the international stage. Some of my goals include the World Junior Championships and to represent New Zealand in a future Olympics.” – Amreen Virk
All three of our representative women’s doubles pairs bowed out of the women’s doubles competition on day two. Two of our pairs, Rose/Smith and Calder-Hawkins/Pak faced the Chinese finalists from last weeks’ YONEX North Harbour International 2019 but went down in tow games.
- Rebecca Fong/Jasmin Ng (NZL) vs Amreen Virk/Jacqueline Yu (NZL) 21-8 21-11
- Pan Hanxiao/Yang Jiayi (CHN) vs Lily Rose/Ella Smith (NZL) 21-10 21-6
- Hou Fangfang/Li Jiajia (CHN) vs Erena Calder-Hawkins/Anona Pak (NZL) 21-8 21-14
Similarly, in the men’s doubles, both of our representative pairs went down on day two to strong New Zealand and Chines opposition:
- Dhanny Oud/Christopher Steeghs (NZL) vs Ben Perkinson/Vincent Tao (NZL) 21-13 21-15
- Yan Yuhang/Zhang Hanyu (CHN) vs Vincent Harris/Aidan Karati (NZL/COK) 21-13 21-12
Fourth seeds Jonathan Curtin and Erena Calder-Hawkins put last week’s YONEX North Harbour International Champions to the test. The kiwi players took the first game in emphatic style, before stepping off the pedal in the second. The third end remained a close contest throughout, but it was the young Chinese players who eventually came out on top:
- Zhang Hanyu/Pan Hanxiao (CHN) vs Jonathan Curtin/Erena Calder-Hawkins (NZL) [4] 20-22 21-7 21-18
“In the second we were a bit more nervous, but we managed to bring our mindset back in the third just to enjoy the experience and enjoy the game.” – Erena Calder-Hawkins
Finally, in the mixed doubles, Ben Perkinson and Ella Smith were one of the last games on court. The pair won the first game in emphatic style, before fellow New Zealander’s Feng and Li battled back to take the second. In a nail-biting finish, the young Waikato players celebrated an overall win to be our only representative players to make the quarter-finals:
- Ben Perkinson/Ella Smith (NZL) vs Joshua Feng/Shaunna Li (NZL) 27-25 16-21 21-18
All of the results from day two are available to view on Tournament Software.
The quarter finals begin at 10am on Saturday 30 March 2019 – with Ben and Ella playing against last week’s champions from the YONEX North Harbour International, Zhang Hanyu and Pan Hanxiao.