"Dutch badminton player, looking for mixed doubles partner to play in Dutch Olympic medallist if possible." This could have been one of the off-court advertisements at the Dutchtournament in Den Bosch.

After Chris Bruil's withdrawal because of an ankle injury, his partner Erica Van Den Heuvel still wanted to play in what is a very important tournament for the Dutch players. "I wanted to play because this is our home tournament and also because it might be my last Dutch" she explained. "So I asked Simon Archer if he wanted to play with me. It was difficult to reach him as his cell phone had just been stolen, but I asked through his coach and it was settled."

What seems to be a new partnership isn't really one - Archer and Van Den Heuvel (pictured) play in the same club of Bayer Uerdingen in the German Bundesliga and sometimes play as a team. This is why they seemed so efficient on court 3 of the Maaspoort Centrum in Den Bosch for the second day of the In just a few minutes, they had easily outplayed the Canadian pair Gagnon/Desaulnier. A few hours later they beat the English pair Lindley/Chaffin with a little more difficulty.

"Now we have to play the Chinese. It's always difficult, but if we go through, then it is quite It also depends on Simon's other matches in the men's doubles," said Van Den Heuvel.

In the quarter finals, they will meet Deng/Jiang. The tall Chinese player and his partner - who won in women's doubles here last year - left the seeded Japanese pair, Haruko Matsusa and Yuzo Kubota, with no chance. The Danish contingent, Sogaard/Olsen and Eriksen/Schjoldager, also advanced to the quarter finals as favourites.

No big upsets in men doubles, with most seeded pairs progressing through to the quarter finals. In the women's doubles event, second seeds Jonathans/Van Hooren (world number 7) were humiliated by the tough Chinese pair Chen/Jiang, 15/1, 15/4.

In the women''s singles, it was an all round Chinese demonstration, as expected. Zhou Mi was the quickest of all, with a 11/0, 11/2 win over Nathalie Deschamps of Belgium - a participant of the World Academy in Cape Town earlier this year. "I am happy that I won two points against her. Her speed was too much for me," said the young Belgian. A few minutes later, it was World Junior Champion Gong Ruina's turn to get quickly changed after she had made Tracy Hallam run quite a bit.

In spite of the support of the crowd and the presence of the Dutch TV, Brenda Beenhakker couldn't do much against Tang Chunyu (pictured), last year's winner. With a technique that isn't very academic, but very efficient, the Chinese girl looked like she could never be reached. She even looked bored at one point.

Last but not least, Zhang Ning will be the fourth Chinese girl in the quarter finals today, after a routine victory against Gita Djajawisato from the Netherlands.

It was a hard day for the players on their home soil. Not even Judith Meulendijks could qualify for the quarter finals. She lost to Katja Michalowsky, the first East German to have made it to the National team a few years back, whose good placement and far reach saw her win the first game 11/3.

Meulendijks started to play more precisely, taking her time to kill the points, and won the second game 11/6. In the final and most thrilling game, the Dutch girl caught up from 5/9 to 9-all, but two shuttles in row hit the net band, much to the crowd's disappointment. "This is the first time I''ve beat Judith in an official competition. I think that she was still tired from her trip to Sydney, but I took my chances, even if I was very nervous, to win at the end," said the German.

Kelly Morgan, Mette Sorensen and Miho Tanaka, as expected, are the three others to qualify for the quarter final stage, the Japanese girl beating Aparna Popat in a three-game match. Each of these four players will have to play one of the Chinese girls. A tough day ahead!

The European men''s singles also had a bad day, losing most of their confrontations with the Asian players. It wasn''t all bad, though, as Richard Vaughan, the first seeded Welshman is still very much eager to prove he can win this tournament after last week's early exit in the German He beat Japan's Otsuda and will meet Budi Santoso today for a very interesting match which will bring together two opposing styles.

China''s Chen Hong looks very fit too, even if he had to raise his game against the Swede George Rimarcdi. Chen will play Tam from Hong Kong in the quarter finals. In the other part of the draw, the Hashim brothers have both won their tickets for the next round. The elder brother Roslin (pictured) won after Indonesian Hadikusuma retired because he had cramps in both legs, while the youngster Hazif outplayed Dicky Palyama from the Netherlands.

Roslin will play the second seeded Dane Anders Boesen who probably had the hardest fight of the day against Yangshung Xie of Germany. The rallies between the two men were never ending, and it was just Boesen's great net play which saved him. He won 12/15, 15/8, 15/12 but will remember this match also because Xie has smashed a shuttle on his head while both players were at the net - bruised, but worth it for the victory!

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Report and pictures by Raphael Sachetat