Badminton Tourney is over for moi. Final round results placed me at 4th out of 5 in Pool B singles, and 3rd out of 4th in Pool C doubles. In singles matchup, I did pretty well, given the strength of the competition. I was definitely the underdog in the round, and my lone victory was a mini-upset to everyone. I love upset victories. The win really boiled down to me making the shots I wanted, and my opponent being forced to block and defend most of time. Easy clear, easy drop, easy clear, smash short side, smash far side, POINT! The opponents to whom I lost were just technically superior. In all but one of the matches, I was giving them a run for their money though. Playing someone better than you in competition really gives you a good sense of what to improve. Hopefully next year, I'll be able to get improve my game enough to be more competitive. :)
In doubles match, it was a different story. We could have won all the matches, but ended up falling short. I'm rather disappointed that we only came through with one win. In doubles, you try to exploit the weaker of your two opponents. My partner is one of the more aggressive type hiters, who is prone to make unforced errors. In our two losses, he definitely got exploited, when he ended up getting the majority of the shots. To add to that, we failed to execute on some of our strategy. For example, we knew our opponents were aiming to get the slower guy to play "front". I asked my partner, who was serving to the slower guy to make a long serve, so the slower guy would start out at the back. My partner didn't listen for some reason. :( Oh well, I still get a prize for finishing in 3rd place.
It's also unfortunate that I'll miss next week's single's final match. The top two players are really really good. I can only forward to the next badminton tourney!
On a similar note, these badminton players are really really good too. An amazing rally at the AEO 2007 competition:)
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