Stephan The Man

Austrian International 2010, First Round

Yesterday I played my first round at the Austrian International 2010 against Simon Manoury of France. I had played once about 5 years ago in Latvia where he beat me in two straight sets. I was hoping to have a better memory of our match up this time. In the first set we started out pretty even and I took an 11-9 lead. The second half of the set continued to be good for me with some clever net play and some crafty defence. However once at 17-13 for me something changed and I seemed not to be able to recover. From having a 17-13 lead I suddenly lost 8 out of the next 9 rallies. which meant that I lost the first set 21-19.
In the second set we continued to be quite even, both of us gunning for the net since it was very difficult to control the fast shuttles. Keeping the net was the best way to force a mistake out of your opponent. We were even all the way to 19-19 where I played a bad serve to give him match point and then he played a very good rally to counter my offence and win the match.
Not so happy about that result and do not like losing again when I have taken a good lead. However hopefully this is just a one month phase and I will be back to my winning ways next month….which is in Germany.
See you there!

Song Of The Week D.A.D Nineteen Hundred And Yesterday

This weeks song of the week is nineteen hundred and yesterday by D.A.D. This song was chosen by a very famous badminton player…..at the international badminton academy…the one…..and only…..Christian Lind Thomsen:) Apparently D.A.D is a danish band but for some reason sing in english. This song got me in the first 10 seconds so I hope you give it a chance…if not you can write and complain to Christian on his website www.christianlind.dk
Enjoy the song and Christian´s website!

Austrian International 2010, DRAW

This year’s Austrian International 2010 draw has been released. As usual these EBU tournaments are tough as nails. You have guys like Andre Kurniawan Tedjono (Indonesia), Anand Pawar (India), Brice Leverdez (France) and Christian Lind Thomson (Denmark) competing.
It might come as a massive shock to all of you that my first round will be against…….wait for it…….a qualifier! Yes it is now the 5th EBU tournament in a row that I get a qualifier. However I have also won 3 out of 4 of my first round matches against a qualifier (my only defeat happening while injured). So my odds are pretty good, but every match I has been won in 3 sets. Which means nothing is a guarantee.

Without further ado, i will post the link for the draw:
DRAW

Lyngby Leading The Way!

Last weekend Lyngby played a team match against Roedovre Badminton Klub. The match against Roedovre was the first match of the play offs in order to try and go up to the 3rd Division. We are currently in the Denmark Series and finished top of our group in the ground play and now we are playing against the top 4 teams in another group in order to go up. The way it goes is the top team from one group plays the 4th team of the other, then the third, then the second and then the first teams of each group meet. In the end the top two teams with the most points after the playoffs will then move up to the 3rd division.

We had the chance to play the first team match at home. We started great by going up 5-1 with me winning my singles in two straight sets. I thought the team match was in the bag until things started to go wrong. We lost the next 3 matches and let them come back to 5-4. All of a sudden we had a ballgame. We had one ladies doubles left and 3 men’s doubles. We brought the boys in for a little pep talk. It seemed to have worked since the ladies and all the boys won their matches! We took the team match 9-4 and also became the leaders in the play offs.

We have 3 more team matches to go. The next one will be against Humlebaek Badminton Klub on the 27th of February. We look forward to playing since we are a VERY confident team:)

Song of The Week- David Usher- Black Black Heart

This weeks song of the week is Black Black Heart by David Usher. I always feel compeled to put any Canadian artist whenever I can think of it. David Usher used to be in a band called Moist back in the days. They were a rockin band when I was in High School and it always brings back some good memories listening to him sing. Not too sure how popular he or his band got outside of Canada, so if you have not heard this song……..I hope you enjoy it:)

Song of The Week Mad World – Gary Jules

This week’s song of the week is Mad World by Gary Jules. I thought I would choose a more mellow song this week since I am licking my wounds. I think its a very soothing song that can instantly make you relax. The video is also kinda neat and creative.
I hope you enjoy it.