The bad French – and especially Breton – got up with a big smile! Having gone to sleep after learning that indoor practice for young people would no longer be possible until further notice, he learned that the “duo of the moment” had written a new page in the history of the discipline.
This Friday morning, on court N.2 of the Yonex Open of Thailand (Super 1000 to 1 million dollars), Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue (N.15 world) were better classified than the Germans Lamsfuss – Herttrich (N.17 ) but their victory (21-19, 21-18) – which we suggest you review in full above – was anything but a given.
Gicquel not totally satisfied
The German duo were quite simply the best performing European pair of the moment, with a victory in Germany and a final in Luxembourg in December, two stages that the Habs had deprived of, Gicquel being in recovery after an ankle injury. But in 45 minutes, the Blues demonstrated that they kept the hand after their first success in Azerbaijan in 2019 (21-9, 21-23, 15-21).
In Bangkok, with a sharp and sharp Gicquel, an intractable Delrue at the net and with a delicate steering touch, the game, although balanced, never seemed to be able to escape the champions of France.
Not yet measuring the extent of the performance, since it is rare to find the French in the last four of a Super 500 and even less of a Super 1000, the Bretillian especially retained a level of play that could still be improved. “It wasn’t our best game. We are happy to be in the semi-final but it was not our best performance. I was focused on the match so I don’t know what we achieved today, confided the Breton licensed at Red Star Mulhouse on the BWF website. I am not very happy because we did not play well, maybe in a few minutes I will understand what we have achieved. “
They already did!
“I think we were stressed before the match, we did not start very well, maybe we put the pressure on ourselves”, confirmed Delphine Delrue (US Ezanville-Ecouen).
Now able to match with the best pairs on the planet, having started well in the Olympic qualification, they did not want to lose points against a pair classified behind them, which is more European (only two British duos, 9th and 13th , ahead of them in the world ranking).
This mission perfectly accomplished, Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue will approach their semi-final on Saturday with full confidence. “It was not a good level, but winning it gives us confidence,” continued the Bretillian.
To try to qualify for a historic final, they will have to pass an inevitably sizeable obstacle since they find in the last square the seeds 1, 2 and 4!
If they will have to pull out the big game against the Indonesians Jordan – Oktavianti (world No. 4, seed series 2), they already know the recipe! A year ago, they silenced the boiling room in Jakarta by eliminating in three rounds (21-19, 14-21, 21-18) the favorites of the public in the quarterfinals of the Indonesian Open.
If this time it will be without an audience, covid-19 obliges, Thom Gicquel and Delphine Delrue therefore know what they have to do to write another beautiful page in their beautiful story and offer the bad French a new beautiful awakening!
