After their loss against Indonesia the previous evening, the Koreans beat Germany and still made it to the quarter finals, where they will meet Malaysia.Korea meets Malaysia

“30 percent,” said Kim Joo Sung - Korea’s team manager - rating his team’s chances to beat Malaysia in Wednesday’s quarter final stage. Then the Korean manager added quickly, “It all depends on Lee Hyun Il.” Should the number one Korean beat Lee Chong Wei, then it may be a different story...

On Monday - which was labour day and a free day of rest for all teams who had topped their groups, against Germany, the Koreans played with a different line up than against Indonesia. This time, it worked better as they had to play only 3 matches - the knock off stage has started already - to beat their opponents of the day 3/0. But it sure wasn’t easy for any of the Asians against a team all fired up. Lee Hyun Il struggled against Bjoern Joppien, then Jung and Lee barely overcame Hopp and Kindervater, before Park Sung Hwan played three games to beat the unexpectedly fit Spitko. It was over after only three matches, but the Germans can go back home with their heads high.

For Tan Kim Her, the double’s coach of the Koreans, the clash between them and Malaysia is to be taken more than seriously. “It will be difficult for us, and a lot will depend on who is playing, but Malaysia has a more balanced team. On our side, we may have a secret weapon,” said Tan, before Kim hinted “I have checked with Lee Jae Jin, and he could be joining us in Tokyo.” This last minute guest could be playing as he was originally on the list before he was injured few days ago. His arrival could bring a breath of fresh air to his team mates before this first big clash where, no matter what, unlike what happened the previous night between Indonesia and Korea, the loser could still go on.

Another difficult match for Asians against the rest of the world saw the Japanese struggle against the USA, who had Tony Gunawan on their side. All three matches went the way of the locals, but the Americans put up a great show with Raju Rai and Eric Go playing some good matches. Tony Gunawan, partnered Bob Malaythong as Bach was home injured and the Indonesian born shuttler was frustrated as he had to lose for the first time ever to Matsuda and Ohtsuka. “I have never lost to them before so it doesn’t feel so nice. Even though I don’t train as hard as they do, I still feel I have the mental strength to beat them. However, Eric and Raju did really well here. It was the first time for Raju Rai, so it’s promising for later,” said the 2000 Olympic champion, hinting that he is still willing to go on, on a year after year basis. India qualified their team 3/0 against New Zealand and got themselves a ticket to play Denmark on 3rd May.

For England, there were some ups and downs during the day. In the early afternoon session, Ian Wright’s boys defeated South Africa in the quickest time - 3/0 in the tie, while the girls couldn’t cope with the Chinese Taipei standard without their key players and went down to World Bronze medallist Cheng and her team mates 3/0. “For the boys, they did the job. We secured a quarter final which was the most we expected, even with a complete squad. We managed to do it even though we are here with a young team, so I am satisfied. It gave the opportunity to a player like Rajiv Ouseph to play and he did well. Now we’ll just have to do our best against China,” said Wright.

The English team manager however wasn’t so satisfied with the Uber Cup fielded a little later on in the afternoon. In spite of being the challengers to the Chinese Taipei team which was not much stronger on paper, Wright felt like there were some missed opportunities. “We had some good chances throughout the tie, on many occasions, and we didn’t take the chances which you cannot afford at this level. We’ll have to work on that. On a positive note, Jenny Wallworth made her debuts here in the Uber Cup. She’s just a junior and was very close to winning her matches. She’s a gifted player and probably more talented than Gail Emms at her age. Now if she works as hard as Gail, she can probably reach the same standard,” hinted Wright.

In the Uber Cup, Singapore, Germany and the Netherlands were the favourites of this first round stage of the knock out format and all didn’t disappoint their fans with clean 3/0 victories. Singapore had a tough time against New Zealand, Germany spent little time on court against South African girls with all three singles played without dropping more than 10 points per game. Lastly, the Netherlands took turns in playing, leaving Mia on the bench but still securing a 3/0 victory over the USA, who saw their second shuttler Eva Lee having to retire during the match against Van Cutsen because of a sprained ankle. Things are now under way for an appealing quarter finals, with no surprises after all in Sendai.

In the Uber Cup, China will play against Singapore for a whole Chinese speaking meeting, while Hong Kong China takes on Germany which could turn out to be one of the most contested fights and a historical possibility for the Europeans to reach the semi final stage. Koreans will play against Chinese Taipei, with still the chance to see Ra on court unless she saves it for the semi final, which they will potentially play against either Netherlands or Japan, the main feature for these quarter finals.

In the Thomas Cup, title holders China are set to meet England for what should be a formality, while on the same upper half of the draw, Japan will hope to create the upset of the tournament against Indonesia. Denmark and India will meet to clinch a ticket to play the winner of Malaysia against Korea, which is once again the match to watch for this competition even if Koreans only give themselves a 30 % chance of win....

The teams are in Tokyo - most travelled by bus, taking a five-hour journey, while some other players enjoyed a much more comfortable ride - the Malaysians took the 100 minutes bullet train the previous night to reach Tokyo’s official hotel.

After a well-deserved one-day break, all the players will be back on court to compete for the two most prestigious team trophies in badminton.