At the HYLO Open in Saarbrücken, the German mixed doubles Thuc Nguyen and Jones Jansen showed a strong performance and secured a place in the round of 16. They won 21:9 and 21:13 against the Ukrainian team Oleksii Titov and Yevheniia Kantemyr. An unfortunate moment occurred when Nguyen accidentally hit Ukraine’s Kantemyr just below the eye, resulting in a brief stoppage. The German duo seized the moment and prevailed across all sets with 14 points in a row. In the round of 16 on Thursday, Jansen and Nguyen will face Frenchmen William Villeger and Flavie Vallet.
Bitter defeats for four German mixed doubles
For other German mixed couples, the day was less pleasant. Marvin Datko and Julia Meyer had to admit defeat to the Englishmen Greg and Jenny Mairs (15:21, 11:21), while Patrick and Franziska Volkmann lost to Callum Hemming and Estelle van Leeuwen. Malik Bourakkadi and Leona Michalski also lost to the French players Villeger and Vallet, and Kenneth Neumann with Linda Efler lost to the Spaniards Ruben Garcia and Lucia Rodriguez. Efler regretted that they were unable to implement their strategy, which ultimately gave the Spanish the advantage.
Doubles and singles matches: Eckerlin and Sonnenschein required
David Eckerlin and Aaron Sonnenschein, both players from the German Badminton Association, played twice. Eckerlin won with Simon Krax in the men’s doubles against the Finnish qualifiers Iikka Heino and Robin Jäntti (21:12, 21:15) and will now face the French Olympians Toma and Christo Popov. In the mixed doubles, Eckerlin was less successful and narrowly lost with his Dutch partner Kirsten De Wit against the Dutch Dyron van Wijlick and Cheryl Seinen (18:21, 21:17, 19:21).
Sonnenschein, who was able to move into the main draw as a qualifier in the singles, met the Taiwanese world number eight Chou Tien Chen. Despite a committed performance, Sonnenschein lost in two sets (14:21, 14:21). In the men’s doubles, which Sonnenschein played together with Jonathan Dresp, there was also a lack of luck against the Englishmen Hemming and van Leeuwen (17:21, 14:21).
Injury setback for Fabian Roth
Fabian Roth, Germany’s Olympic participant, had to give up his first round match against the Dane Mads Christophersen in the first set due to an injury. Kian-Yu Oei was also unable to advance to the next round and lost to Israeli player Mischa Zilberman (13:21, 14:21).
