Report and photos by Raphael Sachetat, Badmintonphoto.com

No big surprise for day one of the Thomas and Uber Cup held in Sendai, with all top teams advancing in the round robin stage. Amongst the top guns, only Korea in the Uber Cup dropped one match.

Finally! A year after the first logos of the Thomas and Uber Cup 2006 were revealed and had appeared on the walls of the 2005 Japan Open, one of the greatest badminton tournaments on the planet has kicked off in a well-organised Sendai Stadium. Datuk Punch Gunalan and Toshio Toi, Vice President of Nippon Badminton Association welcomed the players before local singer Hiroko Moriguchi sang the National Anthem. Players had been presented with their new outfits the previous day during the welcoming dinner held at the official hotel and there was some new designs coming up, or coming off - as during the Copenhagen Masters, sleeves were dropped from some of the player's shirts.

Chinese women's Uber Cup team were then the first ones on court, as the title holders took on the United States of America. The sleeveless yellow stripped with red apparently had little effect on the top girls' games as none of Li Yongbo's girls dropped more than 10 points in any of the 10 games played. This led to a rather dull post match interview with Zhang Ning and Xie Xingfang, who commentated quite quickly on their performance, hinting that in this case, the 21 rally system didn't influence much on the time - or even was longer than a straight 11/1 - 11/1 victory without giving the serve back too much. One thing is sure, the Chinese girls look in good shape and are ready to defend their title next week in Tokyo.

The other three Uber Cup matches were split in the two sessions of the afternoon, with hosts Japan enjoying a safe trip through after beating South Africa. In spite of the late announcement of Michelle Edwards in the African team (she wasn't listed in the first list received by IBF), the Japanese girls had absolutely no problems getting their clean sweep victory, 5/0 in the tie. Other ties attracted more interest as Hong Kong China took on the Netherlands and Korea played Singapore.

The Dutch obviously do not mind finishing second in the group - could it be to avoid China in an earlier stage and play back to back Japan and Korea instead in the lower part of the draw? - as none of their best two shuttlers were fielded in the ladies single. Mia Audina was there to watch but all dressed up as an orange Dutch fan on the side court. Yet in spite of this weaker line up, the Dutch girls did well, losing only 2/3 to the strongest players of Hong Kong China, with a very close match from Rachel Van Cutsen who could have made a bigger the difference against youngster Yip Pui Yin. Judith Meulendijks was frustrated in her match against Wang Chen but got back in the doubles when she and De Wit beat Wang and Yip for the final match of the tie, leading to an overall win of the tie on the closest margin - 3/2 for the Asians.

Another former long time injured player was back in action as Korea took on Singapore. Jun Jae Youn, once in the top 5 shuttlers in the world was back after more than a year away from the courts, when she had seriously injured her knee in the Swiss Open in March 2005. The 23-year-old Korean orphan had an important match as she was the third on court with an even 1/1 on the score board after Li Li had given a first point to Singapore and Lee Yun Hwa caught back against Xing Aying. And Jun had a tough time to get going, as she lost the first game 13/21 to Jiang Yan Mei before struggling to take the second 21/16 and finally getting glimpses of her former classy game to take it home 21/11 in the rubber game. The last match was also a beauty with an even force on both sides of the net when Lee and Lee took on Li and Jiang but the Koreans lived up to their standards and won the match, leading to an overall 4/1 for Korea, who will take on Germany on Sunday.

"We are ready. Everything in the organisation has been perfect so far and I'm very satisfied. No injury either on our side. The players have been quite relaxed until now but they are now focusing on the competition and we feel a bit of pressure, but that's what we want as it means we stand amongst the favourites." These were the words of Steen Pedersen, the head coach of Denmark after this team's victory against South Africa, with an easy 5/0.

Gade, Kaldau and Persson - for his debuts - were fielded for this tie while the doubles went to Eriksen/Lundgaard and Boe/Mogensen. The South Africans however gave some fight especially the Dednam brothers against the top pair, but none of the South Africans scored more than 13 points in any games. "We hoped that we could start this event with a little bit more competition but that's also nice to take it slow. We will enjoy a day of rest, enjoy a good movie and eat sushi," hinted Pedersen, also mentioning that Paaske and Rasmussen, sitting on the bench for now, could be fielded later in the week. "We have different options possible for the doubles so we'll see for next matches," he said.

Malaysia and China were the other two top teams involved in this Thomas Cup kick off day, with both a clean sweep victory 5/0 over the USA and India respectively. Malaysian team manager Abdullah Mohamad however was not fully satisfied with his players' performance but admitted that it was only the beginning of the competition. The USA troubled the Malaysians especially in the first men's double where Lee Wan Wah and Choong Tan Fook were pushed to the limit against scratch pair of Gunawan and Malaythong, barely winning 23/21 - 22/24 - 21/17 in a splendid match from the Americans. Second pair saw Malaysia field their new comer Tan Boon Heong with Koo Kien Keat for a quicker victory while Lee, Wong and Hafiz took the three points from the singles.

China had a tougher start against India with Lin Dan dropping a game against in-form Chetan Anand, but the world's number one was back in business in the third, using more of his jump smashes to take the lead and win 21/8 - 21/23 - 21/11. No such fight for his team mates who all took two games to win their share of the total 5/0 victory. Chen Jin and Xia Zuanze played in the singles, and Cai/Fu and Zheng/Guo in the men's double. Korea also didn't have much problem against New Zealand, who still provided with a good fight, especially John Moody against Lee Hyun Il.

http://tuc.u-netsurf.ne.jp/thomas/en/live/score_league.html#20060428