Herts U17B – Zak Malik

Zak Malik – Herts U17B – December 2018

Herts U17B - Zak Malik

Herts U17B – Zak Malik
Two Bronze medals

On the 1st December, I played in the Hert U17B Badminton England tournament. I played quite well, getting out of my box in singles sand doubles, however mixed was a different story. Despite being the THREE/FOUR seed, me and my partner (Emily Goode) failed to convert all of our games, losing to the gold medal winners 21-18.

However, in singles I was seeded NINE/SIXTEEN and comfortably won all my games, 21-15, 21-10, 21-9. I was then through to the round of 16 where I won my game 21-18, but it shouldn’t have been that close as I was 17-11 up. I was then confronted with the number TWO seed (Nithin Santhosh), who I had previously faced and beaten. This time proved à similar result and I came out on top winning 21-17. In the semi-finals I was faced with the THREE/FOUR seed (Arav Swati Abhay) who later went on to win the final 21-15. Unfortunately, I had lost this game 21-19 due to a very severe calf cramp and had to be carried off court. I had to postpone my pending doubles games for about half an hour as I couldn’t walk, but when I finally got round to playing, me and my partner, Sam Cook, had won all of our doubles games in a very tight box, narrowly beating the THREE/FOUR seeds (Jason Arya and Izaak Smith) 21-18 and beating the other two partnerships 21-16, 21-14. We were then in the semi-finals facing the number ONE seeds (Nithin and Prabav Santhosh) who were seeded ONE and TWO in singles. Unfortunately, within the first 11 points, me and my partner were unable to convert many of the points leading to a 21-11 loss. I thoroughly enjoyed this tournament and was pleased with my result.

Results for the Herts U17B can be found HERE.