Tough battles for local stars
JAMAICA’S NUMBER one ranked men’s player Gareth Henry will face Jan Frohlich of Czech Republic in the quarter-finals of the third annual Jamaica International Badminton Tourn-ament at the National Indoor Sports Centre today.
Henry advanced following his 21-12, 2117 victory against Milan Dratva of Slovakia on yesterday’s opening day of the four-day tournament. Frohlich eased past top Jamaican junior Nicardo Reid, 21-12. 21-9 to set up an interesting clash in the last eight of the men’s singles division.
Henry is looking forward to a tough encounter against Frohlich who is the tournament’s number two seed.
“I expect him (Frohlich) to play a really good game tomorrow (Friday). I need to be more focused than I did in the game against Dratva,” Henry told The Gleaner.
TOUGH GAME
‘I need to be very smart as he is the tournament’s number two seed in the draw, so I’m expecting a tough game,” he added.
Meanwhile, Frohlich is fully aware that he has to step up against the Jamaican.
“I have never played him (Henry) in a tournament before but I have seen him several times in other tournaments. He is experienced, and on home court I am expecting him to be strong,” Frohlich shared.
“I expect a lot of attack from him, so I have to prepare defensively,” he added.
In the other quarter-final match-ups, the tournament’s number one ranked men’s player, Adam Mendrek of Czech Republic, will go up against Luke Couture of Canada; Matej Hlican of Slovakia faces Matthew Lee of Jamaica and Anthony McNee opposes Soren Toft of Denmark.
Meanwhile, Jamaica’s top ranked female player, Katherine Wynter, will battle the tournament’s top seed Rachel Honderich in a key third round match today at 5:30 p.m..
“I have been preparing for this tournament for a long while and I’m confident going against the number one seed,” Wynter told The Gleaner yesterday.
The players are battling for overall prize money of US$10,000 (Ja$1.28 million).