Despite the large number of UCSD players sent to UCLA for the 2009 Bruin Open on the past weekend, a few made it past the first few rounds. Amidst the action packed-weekend, some of the most stunning upsets and disappointing losses were observed. Siavash Assar and Jonathan Lin, the top seed in the D Men's Doubles, were shown the exit in the first round after 3 arduous sets against high-schoolers Tan T. Le and Tung Thanh Tran with a score of 19-21, 21-19 and 21-17. "I did not play well at all, I lost all my games against weaker players", said Siavash after his surprising defeats. Transfer student Ronald Sou, the top seed in B Men's Singles, lost in the quarter final after receiving a bye in the first round. "He is a very good player but he had not played badminton for the past two years. He needs a couple of months to get back to where he was, to start winning tournament again", commented Alan Liu. The last seeded player from UCSD, however, stayed true to the seeding and returned with silver. UCSD graduate student Po-Ting Chen made it to the B Mixed Doubles final but lost out to the top seed of the discipline, honoring their second seed position.
Freshmen Hannah and Nina Wang lost out to the first seed in the C Women's Doubles in the first round. The same thing also happened to Janvier Wijaya, UCSD graduate and the current coach of UCSD badminton team, who was disposed of by Lee Hock Lai in the first round of A Men's Singles with 21-10 and 21-13. As if to make up for his loss in the A Men's Singles, Wijaya fought hard and was crowned the B Men's Singles champion after beating Nick Hardi 21-15 and 21-19 in the final. Along with Sutanto Wibowo, Janvier Wijaya also managed to secure the A Men's Doubles Consolations title after losing to another UCSD graduate, Victor Liu, who was playing with Thinh Ngi.
Victor Liu/Thinh Ngi managed to drown two UCSD pairs in the A Men's Doubles, Janvier Wijaya/Sutanto Wibowo and Alan Liu/George Hong in the first round and quarter final respectively. Sutanto Wibowo thought that his loss was due to his inability to adjust with the courts. On the other hand, Alan Liu thought that his loss was due to his inability to adjust with the speed of the shuttlecocks. "We are so used to slow shuttlecocks that when we play with fast shuttlecocks, our tempo and pace are totally off!", said Liu. UCSD badminton currently uses a series of Wilson shuttlecocks that are relatively slow compared to the Yonex AS-40 shuttlecocks. "We missed a couple of front court kills and our net drops were too high", added Liu after an agonizing defeat with a score of 26-28, 21-9 and 21-19 in the quarter final. "That game was so nerve-wreaking! George and Alan were trailing 14-20 in the first set but they miraculously saved 6 game points and eventually took it down 28-26. Both pairs were neck to neck in the third game up to 17-17 but some errors put their opponents to 20-17. They managed to save 2 game points but lost out eventually with a 19. It was a shame and they could have won if it was not for their couple missed kills and net drops that were below par that game. However, it was a very good match to watch", said Franco, who watched the whole game.
Junior Aggi Bialy and freshmen Nina Wang did well in the B Women's Doubles and returned with silver. The eventual champion from Japan was a little too strong for the runner-ups. Freshmen Angela Yee also had a pretty good run with her partner finishing as the semi finalist in A Mixed Doubles after losing to the impressive Lee Hock Lai/Priscilla Lun combination. Freshmen Che and Kevin Yang did well in the D Men's Doubles by reaching quarter final before losing to the eventually champion in a contest for a spot in the semi final.
In this Bruin Open, some players showed flashes of brilliance while some uncovered the flaws in their game that they need to improve on. This will certainly serve as a confidence boosters and improvements for the players in the upcoming pre-season tournament, where strong teams such as UCLA and UCI will be featured. The pre-season will be held at UCSD on October 18, 2009. If you are up for some exciting and high level badminton games, feel free to come to the main gym on Sunday and cheer for UCSD badminton team!
Article by Franco Ooi