Boonsak Ponsana defeats Takuma Ueda in Men’s Singles round-of-16 of the 2011 US Open Grand Prix Gold
Thailand’s ace player, Boonsak Ponsana managed to reach the quarter-finals after beating Japan’s Takuma Ueda in the Men’s Singles round-of-16 of the 2011 US Open Grand Prix Gold, in California, on Wednesday, July 13.
The fourth seed, Ponsana, played well in a superb rubber-set match, which took a court time of 64 minutes. Ponsana managed a much needed victory after digging deep into his arsenal to pull out some magical strokes in the final set.
The Thai shuttler, who is currently placed at Number Ten in the world rankings of Men’s Singles, started the opening game in a quivering way as he played slow badminton, which helped the Japanese to earn a strong position in the set.
Takuma’s focus was just to play a positive game, as he did not execute extraordinary strokes. Ponsana threw away many points by hitting the bird into the net or wide of the court. The Thai lost the first game with a considerable margin of 16-21, in 22 minutes.
In the second set, Ponsana accelerated his speed at the net to get into a dominating position in the rallies. He was successful as Takuma became defensive in this game, which helped Ponsana to dictate the pace of the battle. Until the interval, Ponsana was leading the game with an 11-9 margin.
After the break, both players were close until the finishing points of the set. At this phase of the second game, Ponsana played remarkable badminton by utilising his experience as his anticipation was perfect. He won the game with a 21-17 margin in 25 minutes, by playing top-class badminton.
In the final set, Ponsana proved that he is one of the best Singles shuttlers in the world, as he wasted no time in snatching the game from Takuma with a dramatic difference of 21-11, in just 17 minutes. This rubber-set match ended in 64 minutes, with the score of 16-21, 21-17 and 21-11.
In the Men’s Singles quarter-final, Ponsana is set to play against Sho Sasaki, who defeated his team-mate, Kazumasa Sakai, in their round-of-16 clash.
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