Badminton – Match practice beckons in Munich – sport in the region

Luck and bad luck are sometimes close together. Misha Zilberman, an Israeli badminton professional in the service of TSV Neuhausen-Nymphenburg, was recently able to gather some match practice after a long, corona-related break in competition. The Denmark Open in Odense gave the 47th in the individual world rankings the opportunity to do so in good time before the start of the German first division season. His bad luck was that he met the Japanese Kenta Nishimoto, who was sixth in the world rankings, in the first round. And the 9:21, 10:21 defeat could have been the last tournament appearance for the Israeli, who was born in Moscow, because of the increasing number of infections worldwide. The team World Cup planned for the beginning of October has been canceled.

This makes it all the more important for the 31-year-old top player to play as many Bundesliga games as possible for TSV Neuhausen. “Even the best training can not replace match practice” knows Zilberman, “and in the first German league I have to deal with strong opponents”. He appreciates “the team spirit and the good atmosphere” there. His focus is of course on the Olympic Games in Tokyo in 2021. He has been collecting the necessary points for this at qualifying tournaments since last year. Zilberman’s freedom of movement and travel was not restricted by the strict lockdown that his country imposed again in September, and as an Olympian he enjoys a special status. Nevertheless, traveling has become more complicated for him, of course, to tournaments as well as to Munich, where he played his part in Neuhausen’s 6-1 win in the opening game against Jena on Sunday afternoon.

Zilberman traveled to the Denmark Open with a negative corona certificate from his home country. Another corona test was due for the onward journey to Germany, the negative results of which must not be older than 48 hours. From November 8th it will be even more complicated. As things stand today, Zilberman has to be in quarantine for several days when he travels to Germany and is only allowed to do a corona test that would allow him to play in the Bundesliga. Neuhausen’s team manager Philipp Blonck doesn’t want to expect that, at least when there is only one game on the schedule at a weekend.

Ukrainian Natalya Voytsekh (who was absent on Sunday) and Slovenian Kaja Stankovic, whose countries are also currently considered risk areas, face the same problem. “We’re only planning from game to game at the moment,” says Blonck. With the Bulgarian Ivan Rusev and Tobias Wadenka, Blonck has alternatives for the top singles, and with Oliver Roth and the Dane Rasmus Bonde there are two double specialists in the squad from this season on. Both made a successful debut against Jena with an undisputed three-set win against Hofmann / Predel. Zilberman defeated Lennart Notni in the top singles with 8:11, 11: 7, 11: 5 and 11: 9. “It took me a sentence and a half to regain the necessary energy and feeling for the competition,” said the Israeli with satisfaction. “Odense’s match experience helped me with that.”