The Swiss champions eliminated after a great fight

What an opening day in the men's and women's doubles at the YONEX Swiss Open: three and a half Swiss teams were allowed to take part in the main draw - which is probably why there were already more spectators on the first day of the tournament than in previous years. However, it was realistic to assume that anything other than a defeat for the Swiss representatives of Swiss Badminton would have been a surprise.

In fact, Nicolas Franconville/Minh Quang Pham proved to have no chance at the start of the Swiss evening against the two Chinese players Liu Yang and Wie Hang Zeng, who are both ranked among the top 30 in the world. They were only just able to keep up in the first set: the score was 8:8 at one point. But then the two players from the Middle Kingdom pulled away and won the match 21:12 and 21:10 in 32 minutes. Despite everything, it was an instructive evening for the Swiss.

Immediately afterwards, the first women's doubles match took to the court: Cloé Brand and Julie Franconville, world number 126, faced the Thai pairing of Laksika Kanlaha/Phataimas Muenwong, who were seeded seventh. It was striking how similar the match was to the previous men's match: it lasted 31 minutes and the result was no less clear at 12:21 and 13:21.

However, Swiss champions Lucie Amiguet and Caroline Racloz had no desire to be mere extras either - after all, as number 81 in the BWF world rankings, they didn't even need a wild card to get into the main draw in Basel. The two of them played a great match. And not against just anyone, but against Chang Ching Hui/Yang Ching Tun from Taiwan, the world number 17. After a great fight, they won the first set 21:18 and showed plenty of nerve at set points. They lost their way somewhat in the second set, which was also reflected in the result: 9:21. However, they regained their old strength in the deciding set and fought for every shuttle. In vain: in the end, after exactly one hour and one minute, the Asian team came out on top 21:16. However, the Swiss women were - deservedly - given a big round of applause.

Finally, Aline Müller and Dutch player Kelly van Buiten lost to the Indian doubles team of Treesa Jolly/Gayatri Gopichand Pullela, who were seeded No. 4, 16:21 and 17:21 after just over half an hour. (AWS)