Babolat Riga International 2012 Open: Pope Ieva outplays Voitechovskaja Gerda to grab title
Latvia’s Pope Ieva has grabbed Women’s Singles title after crushing Lithuania’s Voitechovskaja Gerda in the final showdown of the Babolat Riga International 2012 Open on Sunday, January 29, in Latvia.
Pope lived up to the expectations and cheered the home fans by playing top class badminton against her Lithuanian opponent in the title match. She remained in complete control throughout the match and ended it in straight games by taking just 35 minutes.
The starting points of opening game were interesting when both ladies showed their spirited play. They remained toe-to-toe in the opening rallies but Pope took over the control and started to lead the game.
Pope was having a wonderful support of home crowd and played dominating badminton to maintain pressure on her opponent. She executed straight smashes coupled with wonderful net shots which pushed Voitechovskaja on back foot.
The Lithuanian lady could not match the pace of rallies and also played negative badminton which helped her challenger to take a comfortable lead until the 60-second break in the opening half.
After the break, Pope continued her positive and flawless play and kept her rival under pressure. She did not face any resistance throughout the opening game and bagged it with a remarkable margin of 21-12.
In the second set of this title match, Voitechovskaja played competitive badminton as she remained close to her opponent in the opening half. She displayed positive game this time and managed to earn points by executing her shots in the right areas.
On the other hand, Pope remained struggling in the first half of the second set. Until the one-minute break, no one could establish a decent lead.
After the break, the contest again remained close as both ladies put up superb show of positive badminton. They kept the pace of rallies high and remained close until the ending phase.
At this crucial stage, Pope remained lucky in taking ending points and won the set with a close 21-19 score on the board. The in-form local shuttler won this 35 minute straight-set final encounter with a striking margin of 21-11 and 21-19.
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