Badminton. French Open: no new perf for Thomas Rouxel – Badminton

French Open in Paris (Super 750)

Lee Cheuk Yu, his opponent this Thursday at Paris-Coubertin, is only ranked four ranks higher than his previous opponent, Wangcharoen (world No. 18) but the march was much higher for the Breton Thomas Rouxel (No. 39). Semi-finalist last week at the Danish Open, the Hong Konger was nevertheless led (11-8) by a Habs who knew they had nothing to lose at this stage of the round of 16 of a Super 750 but much to gain in front of his audience.

Lee however took advantage of the mid-set break to take control (13-17). The Bretillian of Chambly Badminton Oise then resumed his game to pick up at 17 everywhere. But if he tore off on each point – to the point of leaving a little varnish on the left knee – he gave in the first set (17-21, 24 ‘).

52 minutes of a big fight

Quickly led 8-2, Thomas Rouxel seemed to have trouble digesting this missed opportunity to put pressure on the winner of the 2019 Hong Kong Open (Super 500). In his style where the point is not lost as long as the shuttlecock is not on the ground, the badiste of Maure-de-Bretagne found the solution to go up twice (14-14 then 18-18).

Despite the support of the young and motivated audience of the Pierre-de-Coubertin room, the 30-year-old Breton, after 52 minutes of a big fight, could however do nothing in the face of a last rush from Lee who will face in quarter-finals, Friday, the Japanese Kanta Tsuneyama (N.13).

“It is played on details”

“The first set, I was in front and I take a series of eight points at once. I glue again at 17-17 and it doesn’t matter much. There are too short lobs, bad choices. On details. It was a good tactical match, confided Thomas Rouxel, at the microphone of the FFBaD. He is younger (25 years old against 30 years for the Breton) but he has more experience than me on big events. Now, I too will be able to do all these big events too thanks to this tournament (and its new best world ranking). I have to take the positive. I would have liked to make my first quarter-final in 750 here and I see that there is room. This is only a postponement “.

At the start of the program, Toma and Christo Popov (N.34) delivered a beautiful duel against Alfian – Ardianto (N.7) but the Indonesian doubles specialists were right (21-12, 21-15) of the Ditch brothers, despite a magnificent burst of energy, like the last point (see the tweet).

This Thursday evening, Brice Leverdez (N.37), the last Habs in contention and who may have played there his last singles match at the IFB, ended up bending (21-16, 17-21, 21-19) at the end intense 80 minutes against Chou Tien Chen (N.4), winner in Paris in 2014.