Taipei girls shocked by Netherlands on opening day

Judith Meulendijks turned the tie the Netherlands' way with a thrilling win in the third rubber

Wuhan: It was a day of whitewashes. The opening day of the BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals saw seven of the eight ties ending in 5-0 washouts – but the day carried some sting in its tail. The final tie, the Uber Cup Group B match between Chinese Taipei and Netherlands, saw fortunes swinging wildly before the Netherlands emerged victors after a dramatic match. The Dutch fought off a 0-2 deficit to steal the tie from Chinese Taipei. The come-from-behind upset will hopefully set the tone for an exciting tournament which features the best men’s and women’s teams on the planet.

While the big guns – China, Korea, Japan and Denmark – had no problems on the opening day, with each registering identical 5-0 margins, the best action was reserved for the final tie, which went down the wire. The Group B Uber Cup tie saw Tai Tzu Ying put Taipei ahead with a 16-21 21-16 18-16 retd result over veteran Yao Jie. Taipei further strengthened their hold on the tie with Cheng Wen Hsing/ Chien Yu Chin getting past Selena Piek/ iris Tabeling in 35 minutes.

Taipei must’ve been looking forward to sealing the tie in the third rubber, but Judith Meulendijks fought back splendidly, winning a thriller of a match in an exhausting 59-minute match. Muelendijks, ranked 20 places below her opponent Hsiao Ma Pai, overcame the loss of the first game and held her nerve during tense moments in the second and third games to pull Netherlands to 1-2. Meulendijks had to hold off a feisty Hsiao though, as the Chinese Taipei girl saved two game points in the second game and two match points in the third to level on 20 each time, but Meulendijks managed to squeeze past.

Ilse Vaessen and Paulien van Dooremalen then managed to fight off the challenge from Tsai Pei-Ling/ Chiang Kai Hsin 23-21 14-21 21-15, and it was now down to the final match. Patty Stolzenbach beat Hung Shih Han surprisingly easily, 21-12 21-18, to put the lid on a riveting tie.

Earlier, China’s men began their defence of the title with a 5-0 rout of England, without any of the matches going to three games. China’s women, probably still smarting from conceding the last edition of the Uber Cup to Korea, were equally ruthless against South Africa – none of the matches even getting to 20 minutes.

Korea’s defence of their Uber Cup started with the same margin against Australia. The only one to be troubled was Hwang Hye Youn in the fifth match, as she was taken to 21-18 22-20 by Hsuan-Yu Wendy Chen.

In other Thomas Cup ties, Denmark beat South Africa (Group C), Japan beat New Zealand (Group B) and Korea beat USA (Group D).