All England Open: Taufik Hidayat displays his incredible craft to reach into quarter-final
Indonesia’s experienced player Taufik Hidayat proved that growing age cannot stop him as he secured his berth into Men’s Singles quarter-final of All England Open Premier Super Series 2012, which is in progress at National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England.
In the round-of-16 clash, the un-seeded Taufik thrashed the former World Champion and number five seed Chen Jin of China on Thursday, March 8.
Taufik, who has been placed at number 12 in Men’s Singles world rankings, displayed his wonderful and hard-to-learn skills and overpowered his higher ranked Chinese opponent, who is World Number Five at the moment.
The lower ranked Indonesian played dominating badminton in the entire contest and managed to win it in straight games by taking 62 minutes in the court.
On the other hand, Jin, who was the favourite to win this contest, tried his best to stop the progress of his rival but failed to dominate the game and crashed out from the championship.
The former Olympic and World Champion Taufik started his campaign in a controlled manner against his higher ranked rival in the first half of the game.
Until the one-minute interval, Taufik was far ahead on the score board and managed a wonderful lead of 11-6.
After the break, Jin accelerated his speed and remained successful in levelling the score by reaching at15-15.
However, Taufik employed his experience at this crucial stage and managed to win the first set with a narrow margin of 21-19.
In the second set, both men snapped each other’s heel by playing positive badminton until the break, where they were close on the score board.
They kept the crowd engaged with their prolonged rallies and entered into the ending phase of second game without setting up a comfortable lead.
It was Taufik who proved his worth at the ending points and won the set with a similar margin of 21-19.
The final score of this 62-minute Men’s Singles straight-set battle was 21-19 and 21-19.
In the quarter-final match, Taufik will face the World Number Two Lin Dan of China, who tamed Malaysia’s Wei Feng Chong in straight games in the other pre-quarter-final contest.
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