If the title holders and the host Japan were already qualified for the Thomas Cup final stage, all other nations had to go through continental qualifying stage all over the world. And the outcome was a bit surprising for some, especially in the Asia and Europe preliminary rounds.

Denmark must be missing Camilla Martin even more than usual. In the Uber Cup European qualifying stage, held in Thessaloniki from February 16th to 25th, the Danish squad were unable to make it to the top three teams to book their ticket to the final stage, something that hadnﾕt happened for a long time.

With the retirement of key players such as Camilla Martin, and then Rikke Olsen and Ann Lou Jorgensen, their doubles specialists, the challenge was tough, even if they had qualified for last edition in 2004 in Jakarta without Martin.

Yet their number one single player, Tine Rasmussen, who seemed to be back in form after her long time injury due to a snapped Achilleﾕs tendon, had to withdraw from the competition because of a lesser foot injury, leaving her countryﾕs fate in the hands of very young and inexperienced players.

And if the Danes topped their group, they were first jeopardized by France ﾐ a team who would have never been a danger to them in the past ﾐ and then failed to beat England in the semi-final. And there was no suspense in the match for the third and last qualifying spot against Germany, as the latter took it home after 3 matches only, scooping each of the points in the ladies single.

But the main surprise was the success of the Dutch girls. Their semi-final against Germany was played in the last match, last game, in overtime, before Judith Meuleundijks and Brenda Beenhakker finally took over from Xu and Piotroswki for a final 3/2 win in the tie. The Dutch then won easily their final against England. A surprising winning team but when one thinks of it, it is only logical, with a very impressive line up.

And for the first time, Martin Van Dooremalen should be able to count on both his best players Mia and Yao, who have never played together in a Uber Cup final stage. Netherlands, England and Germany will go to Japan.

If the girls failed to make it to the final stage, the Danish boys on the contrary were as usual the best team of the qualifying stage as Peter Gade and his compatriots beat all their opponents without dropping a single match through out the week.


In the final, however, Peter Gade had a scare against Bjoern Joppien, when the tall German took the first game from the European Champion, but things got back in order after that and Gade could lead his team to get the first ticket to Tokyo. Denmark will probably be Europeﾕs best chance to win the title for the first time ever in a Thomas Cup.

Germany got the second ticket as they were finalists, while the match for the remaining spot between England and the Netherlands saw the English win 3/1, losing the second menﾕs single (Andrew Smith) to Eric Pang only.

There were some upsets as well in the Asian qualifying round in Jaipur, India, in the beautiful pink City of Rahjastan. If Japan and China didnﾕt participate as they were already qualified (one as title holders, the other as hosts), it was a fierce battle for the four remaining spots, both in the Thomas and Uber Cups.

The big losers in this stage were Thailand, who, in spite of some great talents will have to watch the event on TV as none qualified. The boys were drawn to meet Indonesia in their group match which proved too difficult, even if Ponsana beat Taufik, the young Indonesia generation tool over then.

The most difficult for all teams were to top their group, which meant an automatic qualification, as there was four groups for four spots. The big surprise came with the win of India, at home, who beat successively Singapore and Hong Kong to qualify for the first time since 2000 when Gopichand had led the Indian charge in Guangzhou, China.

If Indonesia qualified at the third spot, without their top doubles player Sigit Budiarto, the fight for the first two saw Korea and Malaysia meet for a final win of Malaysia 3/2 after a very long tie. The Malaysians singles made the difference with Lee Chong Wei, Hafiz Hashim and Kuan Beng Hong.

In the Uber Cup, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Chinese Taipei have qualified, topping their respective groups before fighting between each other to see Korea come on top, as expected for the land that only has really threatened mighty China in the team competition for the past few years.

Europe and Asia, even if they are known to be the top two continents with the strongest players, were not the only places where this qualifying stages were held, for one single spot for each continent per event. For the Panam region, the USA secured a rather easy win in both events (Thomas and Uber Cup) while Canada finished second.

In Oceania, logic prevailed with New Zealand, boosted by the World Championships Bronze medal, taking the only ticket there for both their boys and girls ! In Africa, for the last qualifying stage, it is South Africa which qualified in both events as well.

The draws were done on February the 25 in Tokyo, and saw some already incredible battle within their groups. The Group B of the Thomas Cup will be the toughest with Korea and Indonesia in the same group, meaning for New Zealand it will be very difficult to make it to the quarter finals. In the Uber cup, England and the Netherlands will play each other again in the group match (group X) in order to try to get on of the two qualifying spots.

Group A Group B Group C Group D CHINA KOREA DENMARK MALAYSIA GERMANY INDONESIA JAPAN ENGLAND INDIA NEW ZEALAND SOUTH AFRICA USA

Group W Group X Group Y Group Z CHINA NETHERLANDS KOREA JAPAN CHINESE TAIPEI ENGLAND GERMANY NEW ZEALAND USA HONG KONG CHINA SINGAPORE SOUTH AFRICA