Agusriadi Wijaya marches into second round of Men’s Singles event – US Open Update
America’s Agusriadi Wijaya Amphie powered his way to second round of Yonex OCBC US Open GPG after trouncing Luka Wraber of Austria in the opening match on Monday July 2, 2012.
This first round match was played at Orange County Badminton Club and both contenders entertained the local crowd for 39 minutes before ending this fine show of skills with 21-17 and 22-20.
The victorious shuttler is now scheduled to meet another Austrian player Rüdiger Gnedt and if he continues this successful run then a seat will be reserved for him in pre quarter-finals of this tournament.
Though, Agusriadi Wijaya concluded opening match in just two games but still he had to perform beyond his limits to oust his higher ranked opponent. He matched the skills of his challenger and won both sets by a hair's breadth.
Meanwhile, Luka Wraber showed lack of good finishing skills as he gained an early advantage in both sets and then frittered away those efforts in final moments of the games.
The first set started with his intensive attack which helped him step forward with a couple of nonstop rallies. He gathered four points in a row but could not capitalise this lead and went down after a 5-5 total.
Agusriadi, who was underrated earlier in this event, did not let this opportunity pass and placed a 10-6 margin before the interval.
He did not lose this momentum in later part of the game and established an indomitable lead with 16-11.
The opposing shuttler never came out of this deficit and knelt down after reading 17-21 score on the board.
However, next game was not a flat contest like previous one rather there was lot of drama in this segment of the match.
In first half, the Austrian campaigner dazzled his challenger with a lustrous performance. He accelerated his pace after 3-6 and dominated in eight consecutive rallies.
Later part of the game heated up when local shuttler made swift progress from 6 to 11 on the points table and then levelled the score at 17-17.
Both players remained toe-to-toe until 20-20 but then Agusriadi pocketed two ending points of 22-20 figure.
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