2012 Slovak Open: A quarter-final round entry for Maxime Michel in Men’s Singles event
The budding Men’s Singles shuttler Maxime Michel of France elevated his chances to excel in the Victor Slovak Open after unseating Petr Jelinek in the pre quarter-finals on September 7, 2012.
This hard fought tussle remained in full swing for 55 minutes and both contenders kept the audience intact while piling up decisive figures of 19-21, 21-19 and 21-14.
There were many twists during this second round tie as the Czech campaigner emerged as the expected winner after bagging the first match point but then Maxime turned the tables with a staggering performance.
The French campaigner displayed great fighting spirit and earned the right to be in the top eight shuttlers of this Future Series.
In opening game of the match, Petr Jelinek was completely on song as he proved himself superior in both mental and physical strength.
He kick-started his campaign with a flurry of well crafted strokes which landed in right areas and fetched valuable points for him.
He established a decent lead before one minute break and enjoyed the upper hand in most part of the second half.
Though, Maxime made swift progress in the third quarter of the set but it was not enough to come out of the deficit and he gave up this futile chase after reading 21-19 score on the board.
However, he did not take much time to end this bad patch and made amends by claiming second match point on merit.
This time Maxime employed interesting tactics as he confounded the opposing shuttler with a fine blend of powerful smashes and masterly crafted drop net shots.
The Czech player strived hard to come out of his challenger’s influence but he could not tip the scale in his favour and lost the second set with a 19-21 margin.
With this timely win, the French campaigner built pressure and started third set with a psychological edge.
Maxime’s craft was real feast for the eyes and his splendid show of skills was applauded by the spectators.
He bagged the first half with an indomitable total of 11 and then sealed his victory with a favourable result of 21-14.
His next challenge will be to surpass top seeded Slovenian shuttler Iztok Utrosa in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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