All England: Delightful Day for Dutch
It was an eventful day for the Netherlands with Selena Piek/Cheryl Seinen and Mark Caljouw making the semifinals of the YONEX All England Open Badminton Championships 2021 for the first time.
· DEV SUKUMAR
Both got past Indian opponents – Piek and Seinen weathered a stiff opening game against Ashwini Ponnappa/Sikki Reddy in women’s doubles, 24-22 21-12, while Caljouw was taken the distance by Lakshya Sen in men’s singles, 21-17 16-21 21-17.
Ponnappa and Reddy had three game points and then two more in the first game but with the Dutch fighting off the deficit, the Indians’ game unravelled in the second.
“Winning the first game would’ve made a difference. We were playing from the harder side in the second, it was a lot slower and we should’ve used more force; there was a drift from the side, and we kept playing to that side,” said Ponnappa.