2012 Polish Open: Victoria Slobodjanuk make way in quarter-finals of Women’s Singles event
Russia’s Victoria Slobodjanuk lived up to her billing and saved her country’s honour in Polish Open by securing berth in the quarter-final round of the event on Friday, August 31, 2012.
She overpowered higher ranked Carissa Turner of Wales by registering a favourable result of 19-21, 21-19 and 21-16 after an exhausting exercise of 45 minutes.
This pre quarter-final tussle kept the audience intact until the final moments as both contenders challenged each other in all departments of the game.
Victoria, who was underrated earlier in this International Series, performed beyond expectations and cleared the second round with a 2-1 win.
The match came in full swing straight away in the opening game as at first Carissa Turner established the upper hand but the Russian campaigner brought her down with a strong backlash.
Later part of the game saw both shuttlers putting laudable efforts to oust their opponent and this splendid show of skills was applauded by the spectators.
In the first half of the set, Carissa gained an early advantage with 6-1 and maintained this edge until 11-7 total before the interval.
However, things were not that easy for her in the second half as Victoria put all in her possession and counter-balanced the situation at 15-15 score position.
Both contenders remained close in the next couple of rallies until the spirited player from Wales stole the limelight with a 21-19 margin.
Interestingly, this first set loss worked in favour of Victoria as she switched on her best and claimed the following set in even more impressive manner.
The Russian campaigner laid the foundation of her dominance by ruling the court in preliminary stage of the game and then strengthened her grip with a respectable figure of 11 at mid-game break.
Though, she faltered in third quarter of the set but still managed to maintain a decent lead until concluding figure of 21-19.
Third set was expected to be a neck-and-neck contest but Victoria proved all the predictions wrong by making it a complete one-sided affair.
This time she played with more conviction and did not give her rival even a single counter-attack opportunity.
She placed a 21-16 margin and reserved the right to be in the quarter-finals where she will be up against Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland.
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