Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2011 Mixed Doubles Final: Joachim Fischer/Christinna Pedersen vs Zhang Nan/Zhao Yun Lei

Watch the mixed doubles final of the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open 2011.

This was an opportunity for the Chinese mixed doubles team to regain their pride after losing consecutively to the Danes.

This match featured the current badminton world champions, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yun Lei from China against Joachim Fischer and Christinna Pedersen from Denmark.

Previous Encounters

The world’s no.1 and 2 mixed doubles pair from China, Zhang Nan/Zhao Yun Lei and Xu Cheng/Ma Jin respectively, had lost to this Danish pair in 2 of the last OSIM BWF tournaments.

This placed immense pressure on the Chinese mixed doubles badminton team to regain a champion’s title.

This was the 5th meeting between the 2 pairs, in which the last 4 were won by the Danes. Despite the world ranking, this Chinese pair has NEVER defeat Joachim and Christinna. Unfortunately for the Danes, their winning spree was ended by the world champions at the finals of this Hong Kong Open.

Player Performance &amp Game Strategy

In this match, Joachim was trying to find his best form at the start of the game. He had a very slow start, evidently by the unforced errors he made.

The Danes hardly performed flick serves to Zhao Yun Lei to force her to the back of the court. The reason could be due to Zhao Yun Lei’s ability to play well from the back of the court.

This can be attributed to the fact that Zhao Yun Lei plays as a doubles player; hence she is trained to perform attacking shots from the back of the court.

I recently realised something about Joachim Fischer. He produces a very good backhand smash and is very happy to take the risk to execute the backhand smash.

The badminton backhand smash is a risky shot. Backhand smashes are not as strong as forehand smashes, which gives your opponents a chance to return a good defensive shot. Besides that, hitting the backhand smash gets you way out of position.

Jaochim was comfortable with the backhand smashes because Christinna was able to cover him.

In this match, Joachim performed a couple of amazing backhand smashes.

Chritinna wasn’t playing at her very best along the net since the second game. I’ve seen Christinna execute better net shots.

Perhaps this was a lack of confidence because Zhao Yun Lei was dominating the net area. Christinna did not want to lift the shuttle to the Chinese and played a pressure net game with Zhao Yun Lei.

In some rallies, she was forced into an error by Zhao Yun Lei at the net area.

The Chinese eventually found their rhythm and played very well after losing to the Danes in the first game.

Match Results

In this Hong Kong Open 2011 final, Zhang Nan and Zhao Yun Lei proved they were the world’s best mixed doubles pair in badminton.

They manage to defeat Joachim and Christinna in 3 games. The score was 15-21, 21-17, 21-17.

Read the Season Wrap Up of the OSIM BWF World Superseries Event here!