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Finals order of play:
XD WS MS WD MD starting at 14.00 |
TODAY at the National Cycling
Centre:
Draws & Results
Saturday 5th, Day TWO |
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Semi-Finals:
Quarter-Finals
MS: third final in a
row for Ouseph and Baxter
[1] Rajiv Ouseph bt [4] Harry Wright
21-7,
21-8 (24m)
[2] Carl Baxter bt [3] Ben Beckman
21-17, 21-18
(36m)
WS: two 23-year-olds
in their first finals
[3] Nicola Cerfontyne bt [6] Sarah Milne
9-21, 21-14,
21-17 (59m)
[4] Sarah Walker bt [7] Kate Robertshaw
21-12, 21-13
(22m)
XD:
top seeds save 3
match points
[1] Robertson & Wallwork bt Middleton & Olver
16-21,
21-13, 24-22 (59m)
[2] Adcock & White bt Ellis & Aganthangelou
21-19,
21-12 (26m)
MD:
Langridge & Robertson bt Ellis & Roebuck
21-13,
21-15 (34m)
[2] Adcock & Ellis bt [4] Coles & Nottingham
21-10,
21-17
WD:
[2] Aganthangelou & Olver bt [3] Langley & Smith
21-13,
21-13 (28m)
[1] Wallwork & White bt Davies & Milne
21-18,
21-14 (31m) |
5 matches and 5 wins
today for Wallwork |
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Finals order of play:
XD WS MS WD MD starting at 14.00 |
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Ouseph dodges the blues
and makes the final
Richard Eaton reports
 Rajiv
Ouseph risked getting snarled up in the Manchester City
traffic but still reached the men's singles final in his bid to
win a fourth successive title.
Ouseph did that with a reassuringly comfortable 21-7, 21-8 win
over the fourth-seeded Harry Wright, but there were those
who thought he might end up with hassle by driving back to the
hotel after his semi-final with Toby Penty.
One of those who declined to do that was Carl Baxter, the
man whom he will play in the final for a third time tomorrow,
and who said: "it's too much of a risk – you don't know what you
will get caught up in."
 But
this was a day in which Ouseph did almost everything right, even
though he admitted that he had not even realised that
Premiership match was on.
He was able to work on introducing new attacking elements into
his style against Penty, England's number one junior, and later
tied up Wright with accurate lifts, tight net shots and
unexpected attacks.
"I didn't let Harry play, which was good," Ouseph said in his
steeliest voice. "It will be a tougher match against Carl
because we play each other so much.
"We will be trying to second guess each other all the time. But
we must just be professional and try our best to win."
 Baxter
had the harder semi-final, perhaps a significantly harder one.
"I didn't expect it to be as hard as that," he admitted, still
breathing heavily two or three minutes after a 21-17, 21-18 win
over Ben Beckman, the third seed.
Beckman led 14-12 in the first game, and would have erased a
four-point deficit in the second had he not netted an attempted
kill at 15-16, a mistake which made him hold his nose in
annoyance.
Despite this Beckman often defended well, and threatened to
score with sudden ambushing attacks. But Baxter looked resilient
mentally, fluent in movement, and surprisingly potent when he
attempted to put the shuttle on the floor quickly.
 "He's
improved quite a lot and I was feeling a little bit tired
towards the end," said Baxter. "But I suppose it might have
helped me to get the edge up a bit, as long as I recover well
for tomorrow."
Baxter took a game off Ouseph in last year's final, and may be
capable of making a good match of it again, but the champion
does look a better player now than he was then.
"We've been sparring partners for about four years and we are
such good friends as well, " said Baxter. "But I am still glad I
am playing Raj. If you're going to win the national title, you
want to beat the best, don't you?" |
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Cerfontyne reaches final
amidst drama ...
Richard Eaton reports
There will be a new women's singles champion for only the third
time in 14 years after Sarah Walker and Nicola
Cerfontyne both came unexpectedly through to the final.
The 21-year-old fourth-seeded Walker maintained the momentum of
her continuing recovery after almost a year out of the game with
injury when she comfortably beat Kate Robertshaw, the
tall and angular left-handed attacker, by 21-12, 21-13.
The 23-year-old third-seeded Cerfontyne by contrast won a tough,
long drawn-out and briefly controversial battle with the
tenacious Sarah Milne before coming through 9-21, 21-14,
21-17.
This was a contest between an opponent of great speed and one
with the ability to knock the shuttle around the court and mix
it up, and it was decided to a significant extent because Milne,
who also reached the semi-finals of the women's doubles, began
to tire from half way through the second game.
 "I
played a bit flat in the first game and in the second I decided
to try and up the pace," said Cerfontyne, whose movement was
often superb.
"I just knew if I kept the pace high I could control the
rallies, and that when I slackened off she was quite good."
Milne was twice spoken to by the umpire and then warned for
taking too long between rallies, but there was also a
psychological ingredient to the dramatic swing of fortunes
halfway through the second game.
At 13-14 Milne tapped the shuttle away but was faulted by the
umpire for putting her racket over the net. "No way," yelled
Milne, who walked up to the umpire to express her point of view.
She then strolled slowly away as she tried to regain her
composure and after being told to play on, lost four more points
before she began to recover. But by then she was 13-19 down and
the second game had gone.
The third looked certain to be Cerfontyne's as she got to 17-12
and then 18-13. But there was a hint of a fight-back by Milne
who twice got the deficit back to three points before Cerfontyne
finished it off by cleverly turning defence into attack with a
smash straight to the body and a lunging follow-up at the net.
"That point with the umpiring decision was a crucial one,"
agreed Cerfontyne. "But it was clearly a fault. I don't think my
shot was even going to go over!"
 It
hadn't sunk in that she was in the final, she said, a feeling
which Walker appeared to share. She had been too engrossed in
finding ways to prevent Robertshaw from hitting down to think of
anything else.
But Walker admitted that getting to the final should have helped
her confidence no end. She hadn't played Cerfontyne, who spends
much of her time at Greve, the Danish club, for a long time. The
outcome will be hard to pick.
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Robertson and Wallwork
close to
another doubles double ...
Richard Eaton reports
 Nathan
Robertson, who played four matches in a day, and Jenny
Wallwork, who played five, each reached two doubles finals
for the second successive year - but their chances of two more
titles will probably depend on what Wallwork calls "the state of
my bum."
Wallwork appeared to pull a gluteal muscle during a dramatic
mixed doubles semi-final in which she and Robertson had to save
three match points against Robin Middleton and Heather Olver
before they somehow survived 16-21, 21-13, 24-22.
 "I've
been in that situation many times, so I was quite relaxed,"
claimed Robertson. "I tried to pass that feeling on to my
partner because she was getting a bit stressed in the third!"
That may have had as much to do with the muscle problem that
Wallwork seemed to suffer on the first match point down, as with
the spectre of impending defeat.
"I have pulled my bum very badly," she said later, "and I am
struggling to be honest. I got through that luckily, but tonight
I will have to stretch it and ice it and hope that tomorrow it
feels better."
 In
fact not only did Wallwork get through that match but survived
another one a little later, in which she and Gabby White
beat Helen Davies and Sarah Milne 21-18, 21-14 to reach the
final of the women's doubles.
It was the third match they had played in the day, and in the
midst of those Wallwork and Robertson had played another mixed
doubles, in which they beat Marcus Ellis and Alex Langley.
"It was the same as last year - we got through with just one
tight win," said Robertson, who claimed not to be feeling the
pace despite his 33 years. "The two men's doubles were quite
comfortable."
He and Chris Langridge, though a scratch pair, certainly
played well enough to consider themselves slight favourites in
the final against the second-seeded Chris Adcock and Andy
Ellis in the last final of the day.
And Wallwork and White are the form favourites, as well as top
seeds, against Olver and Mariana Agathangelou, the
European bronze medallists, in the women's doubles, which is the
fourth final.
In theory too Robertson and Wallwork should prevail in the
opening final against Adock and White in the mixed doubles. But
no-one should rule out Adcock winning one title, or perhaps even
two.
It may all depend on the glutes ...
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Quarter-Finals:
Men's Singles:
[1] Rajiv Ouseph bt [7] Toby Penty
21-11, 21-10
[4] Harry Wright bt Daniel Groom
21-13, 21-7
[3] Ben Beckman bt [6] Neil White
21-11, 24-22
[2] Carl Baxter bt [5] Nathan D'Cruz
21-10, 21-9
Women's Singles:
[6] Sarah Milne bt Chloe Birch
21-9, 21-6
[3] Nicola Cerfontyne bt Emily Westwood
21-13, 21-12
[4] Sarah Walker bt Natalie Chan-Lam
21-18 21-17
[7] Kate Robertshaw bt [2] Rachel Howard 10-21, 21-18,
21-11
Mixed Doubles:
[1] Robertson & Wallwork bt M.Ellis & Langley
21-15, 21-10
R.Middleton & Olver bt [3] M.Middleton & Lim
21-13, 21-16
Ellis & Aganthangelou v Coles & Fletcher
21-11, 21-19
[2] Adcock & White bt Hepworth & Littlecott
21-6, 21-10
Men's Doubles:
M.Ellis & Roebuck bt Brunning & Fox
21-17, 21-12
Langridge & Robertson bt Foster & R.Middleton
21-18, 21-12
[4] Coles & Notingham bt Green & Groom
21-8, 21-14
[2] Adcock & A.Ellis bt Liew & Tonks
21-19, 21-11
Women's Doubles:
[1] Wallwork & White bt Fletcher & Walker
21-16, 21-9
Davies & Milne bt [4] Lim & Ward
21-19, 17-21, 21-19
[3] Langley & Smith bt Bromley & Sankey
21-12, 21-10
[2] Aganthangelou & Olver bt Bong & Westwood 21-12, 21-12 |
Ouseph will dodge the
Blues
Richard Eaton reports
 Rajiv
Ouseph displayed the skills which are making him a likely
qualifier for the London 2010 as he reached the semi-finals of
the men's singles without dropping a game.
The defending champion's bid for a fourth successive title took
him to a 21-10, 21-10 win over Toby Penty, England's
number one junior. It meant that in three matches Ouseph had
conceded an average of less than 12 points per game.
You could see why. He moved the shuttle around cleverly, he was
deft at the net, and several times he finished points off with
impressive power. It was an all-round performance which
indicated the direction in which his badminton is moving.
"There's a couple of things I am working on," Ouseph said. "I'm
learning to play in different styles, as well as to be more
aggressive and I'm just working it into my game so that it's
becoming a bit more natural."
 It
left him with a minimum three-hour wait before a semi-final with
his pal Harry Wright, the local hero who came through
with a 21-19, 21-7 win over surprise survivor David Groom.
The resulting warm-down, warm-up schedule can be tricky. "I
shall just go back to the hotel room, and rest a bit, and maybe
sleep," Ouseph said.
"And I may get out a bit. I don't want to stay in the hall more
than I've got too."
 His
nearest rival, Carl Baxter, was doing it differently.
After beating a member of the England performance squad,
Nathan D'Cruz 21-10, 21-9, Baxter contemplated his rest
options with an eye upon events at the nearby Eastlands stadium.
There Manchester City were playing West Bromwich Albion, with
the likelihood of thick traffic around and near the badminton
hall.
"Normally I'd try to get away from here, but I don't think that
would be a good idea with that sort of match going on," said the
world number 36, ahead of his semi-final with the third-seeded
Ben Beckman.
The women's singles saw the abrupt departure of the
giant-killer. Chloe Birch, the Sheffield schoolgirl who
sensationally ended the title defence of Liz Cann in the first
round, was herself brought to a sudden halt in the
quarter-finals.
 Birch
found herself against her fellow Yorkshirewoman Sarah Milne,
who clearly knew far too much about the 15-year-old's game, and
outplayed her 21-9, 21-6.
It was an uncomfortable reality check after the heady moments of
the day before.
That earned Milne a meeting with the third-seeded Nicola
Cerfontyne, but the second seed, Rachel Howard, failed to
make the semis.
Instead she was beaten 10-21, 21-18, 21-11 by the seventh-seeded
Kate Robertshaw, a 20-year-old from Leeds whom national
singles coach Kenneth Jonassen describes as having "great
potential".
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