Short but sweet opening day in Almere - talking point Piek

› alles over het Badminton Festival!

With a condensed and short programme the main talking point was not about the seven matches in today's qualification but the forced withdrawal of top seeded Dutch pair in the mixed and women's doubles.

Piek was forced to withdraw due to a foot injury severely scuppering home hopes for success this week. The show goes on and with only seven matches in qualification across men's and women's singles it proved a tough day for Germany who had representation in all seven matches.

Of the seven only two, Lisa Kaminski and Yvonne Li in women's singles, came through to take their main draw spots while Hannah Pohl, Peter Lang, Lennart Konder, Tobias Mund and Brid Stepper failed to make an impact.

Denmark's Rasmus Gemke continued his assault on the circuit getting through yet another qualification tournament as he builds up world ranking points while there was some Dutch success with Thomas Sibbald booking his spot in the men's singles main draw where he will now meet Croatia's Zvonimir Durkinjak.

Czech player Flip Budzel, who incidentally partners Kristina Gavnholt this week in mixed doubles in Almere, will also line out in the main draw proper in men's singles after victory in today’s short but sweet qualification round.