Badminton Asia Championships: V Shem, Khim Wah earn a spot in Men’s Doubles quarter-finals
The Men’ Doubles campaigners of Malaysia Goh V Shem-Lim Khim Wah ensured their presence in quarter-finals of Badminton Asia Championships by defeating Fang Chieh Min-Lee Sheng Mu of Chinese Taipei on April 19, 2012.
In a pre quarter-final tussle, the Malaysians stunned their higher ranked opponents with final results of 14-21, 21-16 and 21-16.
Both teams displayed premium skills in the 53-minute fight and earned great deal of admiration from the crowd.
However, V Shem and Khim Wah stole the show by applying superior badminton skills especially in last two games of the match.
In opening set of the tussle, the World Number nine duo Fang Chieh Min-Lee Sheng Mu overpowered their lower ranked rivals and bagged the first match point.
The Taipei couple played attacking badminton right from the beginning and set up a decent four-point advantage but their opponents changed the situation with five consecutive points. Both teams were locked at 11-10 until mid-game break.
After the interval, Chieh Min and Lee Sheng proved their class and left their rivals far behind on the scoreboard with a decisive margin of 21-14.
However, this first set win advantage did not worked in following game as they knelt down after reading 21-16 score on the board.
V Shem-Khim Wah, currently ranked 30 in world rankings, showed strong character by tackling this psychological attack and levelled the lead with a convincing knock.
The Malaysians established a notable lead with 11-5 score before the one-minute break. They did not give their challengers any counter-attack opportunity in later half also and proved their worth by snatching crucial match point from their seasoned opponents.
There was lot of drama in final set as both teams tried to stand tall by putting all they had in their possession.
In the first half of the set, the balance of the match was in favour of Chieh Min and Lee Sheng as they were dictating their challengers with 11-8 score. However, after the interval V Shem and Khim Wah pocketed six consecutive points which was the final
blow for the Taipei couple as they had to bow down after reading 21-16 score on the board.
The Malaysians will now test their chemistry against the Japanese duo Hiroyuki Endo-Kenichi Hayakawa in the quarter-finals of the event.
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