Park Joo Bong has not come to Japan to play in the little leagues. He wants his girls to reach the final of the Uber Cup, counting on the public support which showed up in numbers to see their home team qualify for the quarter finals.

It was a packed stadium of 5600 people, waving the white and red flag or having it painted on their cheeks. All that to welcome the second round robin match of their local team, the Japanese Uber Cup team, who has become famous throughout the months before this big event. "There was a lot of promotion here for few months, there was more interest from the media, and there was even a special program from NHK (Japanese TV station) who followed our training camp to do a special feature. It has helped promote the game here a lot, but I am still very surprised with the number of spectators today," said Park Joo Bong, the man behind Japan's recent success.

And his girls secured a second win in a row in their group which was the easiest of all, but Joo Bong's girls did the job perfectly, winning 5/0 against New Zealand and finishing the round robin session with no match lost and a direct ticket to the quarter final. Yet for this stage, things didn't go as planned for the Korean legend.

"With the line up, we were not prepared to play the Netherlands as we thought that they would top their group, but they didn't make their best team play against Hong Kong, so now we have to be very careful because Mia Audina is a very strong player and could take two points by herself, almost. But our team is very strong mentally. The girls were a bit tired after the training camp which lasted six weeks all together, but now they have go their fighting spirit back. I believe that we can reach the final of this Uber Cup. China seem too strong, but we are hoping to beat Korea, in the semi final, should we beat the Netherlands first. But Korea has a very strong team, with two potential great doubles with Ra Kyung Min, and Jun Jae Youn in the women's third spot," said the Japanese coach after their win.

One thing is sure - the home team has showed great team support - the girls not playing had dressed up all in orange and cheered for their team mates on court, while it was announced that it would be a packed stadium in Tokyo when the event moves on to the final stages from 2nd May.

Korea was to play a little bit longer as they were entering the late afternoon session against Germany, who had created a surprise by not fielding Grether and Schenk in the ladies double. And this tactic almost worked as Xu Huaiwen won the first point against Seo and Petra Overzier not far from taking the second point for her team, when she won the second game to level up, but the Koreans took it home in the decider.

The second women's double from Germany did well and lost only 21/18 - 21/19 to Hwang and Ha, before Jun Jae Youn closed it off in straight games against Nicole Grether, under the coaching of Ra Kyung Min, who still hasn't taken off her sweat pans to get on court. China's 5/0 score against Chinese Taipei may sound a bit rough but it wasn't all that simple for the title holders especially for world number one pair of Gao and Huang who struggled to win against Chien and Cheng. All their team mates took their points in straight games.

Earlier in the day, the Dutch had made a clean sweep against England even if Yao Jie wasn't around - the Chinese born Dutch has stayed home in spite of being on the official team list - because of an injury. "In a way, we were surprised that they lost to Hong Kong, but the fact that Yao Jie isn't here is also lucky for us," had said Park Joo Bong. But as he warned earlier, Mia looked strong and did score two points for her team, both in the single and double.

Three of the top four seeds enter the quarter finals directly while Hong Kong, unseeded, will be the fourth qualified directly. The Dutch on their side will have to play a first match on Monday, here in Sendai, against the USA before going to Tokyo to meet Japan in case of victory.