LI-NING Hong Kong Open Badminton Championships 2024 continued at the Hong Kong Coliseum with the round of 16 in action. Upcoming Hong Kong, China player Jason Gunawan thrashed Christo Popov of France 2-0 to reach his first quarterfinals in the home tournament, looking forward to the competition and hoping to keep his passion and desire to win in the next round.
“It will be more difficult in the quarterfinals and I want to perform my best in front of the fans and won’t let them down,” he said.
Ranked 56 in the world, Gunawan made his Hong Kong Open debut last year as the 20-year-old started from the MEN’S SINGLES qualifiers until exiting in the second round. Returning to his favourite tournament in 2024, Gunawan kicked off his campaign with a berth in the main draw, overcoming Japan number two Kenta Nishimoto in the first round before taking on the Frenchman. Both players have never met before but Gunawan showed massive potential in his straight game victory.
After taking the first game 21-16, Gunawan maintained his feat to give the opponent little chances and was in a comfortable 11-5 lead before the break in the second game. With support from the home fans, the Hong Kong, China player fully utilised the court and made his opponent run to seal victory with another 21-9 win. He will now meet Anthony Ginting of Indonesia, the 2019 Hong Kong finalist, in the last eight.
With victories over higher ranking players in the first two rounds, Gunawan attributed his success to patience. “I had more patience to tackle my opponents in both matches. If they tried to beat me with strong smashes but I could defend well, they would use up their stamina at one point where my chances came.”
Gunawan also said he had been in good shape. “I felt pretty strong in these first two days and hope I can continue it with a strong desire to win as the quarterfinals will be more difficult. I have made some good improvement recently, thanks to my coach Wong Choong Hann. My shots have become more mature and I can maintain a strong mental state. Even if I lost a point, the coach will tell me to remain calm and do it again in the next point.”
The home player also thanked the support from the fans, instilling more confidence into his game. “It will definitely be a tough battle tomorrow. I hope I can perform to my best and won’t let the fans down.”
The home team also had three pairs of WOMEN’S DOUBLES in action in the round of 16 today. However, Fan Ka Yan and Yau Mau Ying did not have any chance against world number 12 Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi of Indonesia as they lost in straight games 2-0.
Another Hong Kong, China pair, Leung Yuet Yee/Ng Wing Yung took their Korean opponents Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chan to three games before losing 21-17, 13-21, 18-21.
Leung blamed their defeat in the third game to her own blunder when she served long. “I was too nervous in that serve as I had to retake it because the opponent was not ready. But then I made a simple error of serving too long,” she said. But they were still able to take something from the defeat after winning the first game against a top quality pair.
“We watched our two Yeungs’ pair in the previous round against the same Korean pair and that gave us a chance to get the knowhow to play. Our game plan was to win the match and we did follow it throughout the match. After winning the first game, we did not handle too well of the current after changing the court, hopefully we have learned the lesson and do better in future.”
It was only the second time the two shuttlers played together and Ng was deeply impressed by their performance. “Hopefully we can make it to the quarterfinals in bigger tournaments in future and stand on the winning podium in smaller events.”
The third pair, Tsang Hiu Yan and Lui Lok Lok also suffered a straight game defeat as they lost 0-2 to third seeds Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan of Malaysia.