2012 London Olympics: Rajiv Ouseph thrashes Henri Hurskainen in group stage match
Men’s Singles expert Rajiv Ouseph stamped his supremacy against Henri Hurskainen in the opening match and fetched his first win of London Olympics at Wembley Arena on July 29, 2012.
This Group M match prolonged to three gruelling sets before ending with final result of 22-20, 17-21 and 21-15.
The British shuttler, who holds 15th spot in tournament ranking, played with great conviction and locked the honour by prevailing in opening and ending parts of the battle.
On the other hand, Henri displayed a fluctuated performance and lived up to his billing only in the second set of match.
Now, Rajiv Ouseph has a fair chance to qualify for the quarter-finals of the mega event as he will be up against a relatively lower ranked Guatemala campaigner Kevin Cordon in his next group stage encounter.
World Number 25 shuttler will surely utilise his confidence which he earned through a splendid 2-1 win in the opener.
In the opening match, he laid the foundation of his supremacy by claiming very first match point on merit.
The 25-year-old Rajiv got into right momentum when he dominated in three consecutive rallies after 4-3 total.
He did not lose this rhythm and dictated his challenger in next couple rallies. He mounted pressure with 9-5 and then made best out of this initial advantage to finish the first half with an upper hand in 11-6 margin.
However, later part of the game saw the opposing shuttler Henri making swift progress to narrow the gap.
The Swedish player launched an effective counter-attack strategy and brought the contest to right balance in third quarter of the set.
Though, the game remained on knife’s edge until final moments but Rajiv tipped the scale in his favour with 22-20 score.
Next game brought life back into match as the suppressed contender of the first set stormed back and counter-balanced the situation with a strong reply.
This time Henri showed transformed character and bagged a crucial match point with a decisive figure of 21-17.
The decider was expected to be a nerve racking contest but the British campaigner proved all the predictions wrong by claiming victory with a significant margin of 21-15.
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