Andrei Babad beats Gabriel Jr Villanueva in round-of-16: 2011 MVP Sports Foundation - Bingo Bonanza
Philippine’s Andrei Babad has defeated Gabriel Jr Villanueva in the Men’s Singles round-of-16 match in the 2011 MVP Sports Foundation-Bingo Bonanza event, held in Philippines, on Thursday, June 2.
Babad defeated Gabriel after a tough fight of three-sets, which took 55 minutes of hard labour from both shuttlers. In the quarter-final of the event, Babad will be up against top seed, Antonino Gadi, who crushed Carlos Antonie Cayanan in straight games.
In the first-set of the match, Babad delivered a stunning performance by playing top-class badminton in a planned manner. He never lost grip over the rallies and kept the pace of the game quite high. Gabriel tried to find momentum in the first-half, but
failed to produce better shots as his opponent spared no chance for him to dominate the game.
Babad employed fast pushes, attacking clears, powerful smashes and spinning net strokes to prove his class against Gabriel, who had no answer to the perfect play of his opponent. Babad finished up the opening game by an impressive difference of 21-13, by
sparing only 15 minutes in the court.
In the following set, Gabriel tried a different strategy, as he increased the speed of the game to tackle the pace of his opponent. He controlled the rallies by executing consecutive smashes together with spinning net shots, which earned him a good lead
against Babad, who played some shaky strokes at the important stage of the game. Babad lost the second-set due to his negative play with a margin of 17-21, in 18 minutes.
In the third game of this superb match, both shuttlers entertained the crowd by playing aggressively in the opening half of the set. The crowd went crazy when both players exchanged long rallies by keeping the speed at the maximum level.
In the ending moments of the final game, Babad managed to score two crucial consecutive points and won the set by a 21-19 margin, in 22 minutes. This 55-minute match ended with a score of 21-13, 17-21 and 21-19.
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