Holland secures berth in Uber Cup Finals with third position in European Women’s Team Championships
The Holland beat Russia in a match for third position in the European Women’s Team Championships, yesterday and confirmed its spot in the Uber Cup finals, set be held in China, this May.
The World Badminton Federation has subjected , the fourth positioned team of the European Women’s Team Championships and the fifth top ranked team of Uber Cup preliminaries, to a cumulative world ranking points tussle and the team with higher rankings
is supposed to have the honours of playing Uber Cup finals.
The Dutch shuttlers, to ensure the ticket to the Uber Cup finals, did not have any other option rather than to win against their Russian rivals as losing to them meant a thorny contest with Indonesia.
The Indonesia had a significant lead in term of points over these two expected contestants so the Dutch had to burn their boats in this last crucial encounter to sail smoothly to the China.
The Dutch shuttler Judith Meulendijks set the foundation and bagged the first match point by hunting her Russian challenger Anastasia Prokopenko in singles match, with ticking 21-14 and 21-12 score on the board.
The Russian doubles team Valeri Sorokina-Nina Vislova levelled the lead with a convincing 21-16 and 21-9 win over Holland’s Lotte Jonathans and Paulien Van Dooremalen.
The next Russian singles shuttler Tatjana Bibik gave tough time to her Dutch rival Patty Stolzenbach but could not carry the lead further and lost a 57 minute contest when the Holland’s shuttler hammered her with final score of 15-21, 21-16 and 21-19.
The next doubles game turned into a survival of the fittest war and the Dutch duo Selena Piek and Judith Meulendijks edged the Russian couple Anastasia Chervaykova- Anastasia Prokopenko, after keeping scorers busy for 50 minutes in marking the final score
of 21-12, 16-21 and 21-13.
That last match point sealed the Holland’s 3-1 victory over Russia and guarded their presence in the Uber Cup finals, China.
The Russians now are head to head with the Indonesia in cumulative world ranking points contest but they have very low chances of playing the Uber Cup finals and they have to go back home with the fourth standing in the European Women’s Team Championships.
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