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My comeback win was amazing feeling, says de Visch Eijbergen
Back in June, Soraya de Visch Eijbergen expressed surprisewhen Surrey Smashers signed the 21-year-old young Dutch player for their debut season in theNational Badminton League.
Five months on, she described her NBL win last Monday as “thebiggest of my career” and now hopes that an unbeaten start to life in the UKdomestic league for the Guildford-based franchise will propel her career.
De Visch Eijbergen was, without doubt, the standout performer onMatch Night 3 when she came from 8-4 down in the fourth against thehigher-ranker Bulgarian, Linda Zetchiri, to force a tiebreak, which the youngDutch star took 5-3.
It sparked pandemonium at the Surrey Sports Park, while herwin highlighted one of the league's main aims: namely to give franchises thechance to blood younger players in a pressure-cooker environment.
Her victory also changed the complexion of Surrey Smashers'home clash with Loughborough Sport as the hosts scraped a thrilling 3-2 win togo top of the table.
“It was definitely the best career win so far for me", sherecalled. “It was amazing and was the best feeling, especially as I am also stillunbeaten.
“I was behind in the fourth and I thought that was it, but I didn't expect to come away with thewin.
“Atone point I felt so much anger in my body that I thought 'now I'm going to winthis match!' So I played and wentfor it.
"I was really happy to win. I really felt the crowd and they played a really important part.”
De Visch Eijbergen's signing is all thanks to team-mate CarlBaxter with the two playing club badminton together in the German league.
“He told me all about the NBL,” she says. “Carl then toldHayley Connor [Smashers' coach] about me and then I was signed!
“I have juststarted my senior career so I was really surprised when I was signed, but I wasreally looking forward to seeing how it went and learn from it.
Andlearn she did. In her debutfor Surrey Smashers, the Netherlands' national champion beat Milton Keynes Badminton's Liz Cann.
"Ididn't expect to win these kind of matches so early on, so it has been an amazingexperience to do it twice,” admitted de Visch Eijbergen, who won the VictorDutch International earlier this year.
Connor,meanwhile, praised de Visch Eijbergen's “heart” during the 1,000-sell out lastMonday.
“Shewas fantastic and I can't say anything more than how incredible she played,”said Connor. “She got the crowd on its feet - one of our aims here - and it gotSmashers back into the game. Hat's off to her, she was my player of the night.”
De Visch Eijbergen and Surrey Smashers play their second home match in a row on Match Night 4 against Team Derby . Will the rising Dutch star be able to make it a hat-trick of wins?
