In the fifth day of competition at the 2009 world badminton mixed team championships, also called the Sudirman Cup tournament, currently underway in Guangzhou, China, the Philippine team finished up the round-robin phase in their sub-group with an overwhelming victory over Turkey 5 matches to none. The victory cemented second place in Group A sub-group 4A behind top-ranked Switzerland and put them into a play-off for third-place in the group against sub-group 4B second-placer Portugal.

The Philippines had started the day in second place in sub-group 4A and the team officials wanted to make certain that they stayed there or moved up to first place in case Switzerland faltered in their contest with South Africa. So, the team philosophy of getting international experience for the rookies was put aside for the day and team management fielded their best combination for the encounter with Turkey. The internationally successful Kennevic Asuncion was fielded in both mixed doubles and men’s doubles while his equally experienced sister Kennie was listed for both the mixed doubles and women’s doubles. Benjie Gadi who had proven himself quite capable with two wins in the tournament was listed as the team’s men’s singles entry.

The Asuncions showed that they were easily the class of mixed doubles pairs in the group with a ho-hum 21-7 and 21-8 over Mustafa Yalvareci and Elif Aktas Oz in a brief 14-minute match that was highlighted by a display of 19 point-scoring smashes by the Philippine pair.

In the mens’s singles, the youthful Benjie Gadi continued to show flashes of international potential. He battled Turkish top player Mehmet Tural point for point in the first game before losing 17-21. In the second game, Tural began to show signs of tiring and very quickly fell behind Gadi with his inability to block the Philippine player’s smashes and net shots. Gadi took the second 21-10 to send the match into a third set.

Tural seemed to get some of his energy back during the rest period between sets. He and Gadi played even in the early going with several lead changes. At 4-all though, Gadi put together a string of 3 points and started to pull away. Tural then scored three points to pull even again at 7-all but then seemed to once again tire, allowing Gadi to win 9 rallies in a row. Tural could not manage to recover from such a large deficit and Gadi went on to take the decider 21-14.

The Philippines was only a match away from victory and a certain second place in sub-group 4A.

Karyn Velez then took the court for a women’s singles match with Ezgi Epice, Turkey’s top lady player. Like the men’s singles, the two players battled point for point in the first set until 16-all when Velez won 5 consecutive rallies to take the game 21-16. Epice was a shadow of a player in the second set; she had almost nothing left as Velez scored multiple times on smash after smash mixed in with tight net play and deceptive drop shots. The Philippine player was an easy second game victor at 21-10.

Velez’ win over Epice guaranteed the team victory for the Philippines at 3 matches to none.

In the men’s doubles match that followed, Turkey’s Mehmet Tural and Ali Kaya managed to outplay Kennevic Asuncion and Paul Vivas in the late part of the first game and won it 21-18. The second set was closely fought like the first game; this time though, it was the Philippine players who outsteadied the Turks in the late going. Asuncion and Vivas took the second 21-18. In the deciding third game, the Philippine pair’s smashes often got past the Turkish smash defence.  The Turks also seemed to tire after a 5-all tie and started to fall behind. Asuncion and Vivas then went on to win the decider 21-12.

The last match was the women’s doubles with the Philippines’ Kennie Asuncion and Gelita Castilo pitting badminton strokes against Ezgi Epice and Oznur Caliskan. The Philippine ladies were too good for the disheartened Turks who had no answer to the smashes of Asuncion and Castilo. The Philippine pair easily took the match 21-11 and 21-11 to complete the 5-0 whitewash of the Turkish side.

Next up for the Philippines tomorrow afternoon is Portugal in the playoff for third place in Group 4.
Switzerland faces Lithuania for top honors in Group 4.

In Group 1 competition among the teams in contention for the title, top-seed Denmark was knocked out of contention by Malaysia 2 matches to 3. Denmark was not able to field top men’s player Peter Gade who was reportedly suffering from severe headaches; they were also missing top women’s player Tine Rasmussen who was injured before the tournament and who did not make the trip to Guangzhou. Malaysia took advantage of the absence of these players and won the two critical singles matches with ease with Lee Chong Wei taking the measure of a gallant but outskilled Jan Jorgensen 21-11 and 21-18 in the men’s singles and with Wong Mew Choo beating Nana Jensen 21-8 and 21-11. A 21-9 21-14 win in the men’s doubles by Koo Kean Keat and Tan Boon Heong over Lars Paaske and Jonas Rasmussen coupled with the singles victories gave the Malaysians the team contest and a place in the semifinals.

In the other Group 1 encounter, host China blanked Indonesia 5 matches to none. Not too much is to be made out of the whitewash because Indonesia did not field their top players, choosing instead to rest them for the semifinals on Saturday.

The Chinese victory clinched first place for the hosts in Group 1 sub-group 1B. Indonesia placed second. In sub-group1B, Korea took the first position with Malaysia coming in second. China will play Malaysia in the one of the semifinals on Saturday while Korea battles Indonesia in the other semifinal.

(Only the teams in Group 1 sub-groups 1A and 1B are competing for the world title. Group 1 sub-groups 1A and 1B are similar to the Open level in a Philippine badminton tournament. Teams in the lower sub-groups like 2A, 2B, 3A, 3B, 4A and 4B, which are similar to Level A, B and C in Philippine badminton events, are only competing for promotion to play at the next level at the 2011 world mixed team championships).

Following are the team-by-team results of the fifth day’s contests:

Afternoon Session

Group 4 - Subgroup 4A Switzerland beat South Africa 4-1
Group 3 - Play Offs for Fifth Place Czech Republic lost to Scotland 1-3
Group 2 - Subgroup 2B Netherlands lost to Russia 2-3
Group 2 - Subgroup 2B Singapore beat Poland 3-2 
Group 3 - Play Offs for Seventh Place Sweden beat Australia 3-1
Group 4 - Subgroup 4A Turkey lost to Philippines 0-5

Evening Session

Group 4 - Subgroup 4B Iceland beat Mongolia 5-0 
Group 3 - Play Offs for First Place Bulgaria lost to India 0-3 
Group 1 - Subgroup 1A Denmark lost to Malaysia 2-3
Group 1 - Subgroup 1B Indonesia lost to China 0-5 
Group 3 - Play Offs for Third Place USA lost to Ukraine 1-3
Group 4 - Subgroup 4B Lithuania beat Sri Lanka 4-1