Brice Leverdez hammers P. Kashyap to enter round-of-16 in Malaysia Open GP Gold 2011
France’s Brice Leverdez has booked his place in the Men’s Singles round-of-16, after beating India’s P. Kashyap in the second-round of the Malaysia Open GP Gold 2011 on Wednesday, May 4.
The French shuttler had to struggle hard for a three-set fight of 57 minutes against Kashyap who defeated Chong Chieh Lok of Malaysia in the first round of the championship. In the round-of-16, the French player will take on Beryno Jiann Tze Wong of Malaysia,
who managed to defeat Chun Hei Tam of Hong Kong in the second round.
Leverdez started the opening set in a hesitant way as he made many mistakes in the opening part of the game. His shaky play provided an opportunity to Kashyap to build a comfortable lead of 11-6. The smooth and quick movement of the Indian put him ahead
of the French shuttler in all aspects of the game.
After the break, Kashyap extended his lead by keeping the bird low. He avoided unforced errors and perfectly executed smashes. Leverdez tried his best to break the momentum of the opponent, but failed as the Indian was playing a much better game. Kashyap
clinched the first set in 20 minutes by a 21-17 margin.
Leverdez changed his tactics in the second set, which worked in his favour. He became aggressive to tackle the speed of the opponent and remained successful in establishing a reasonable lead of 11-7 in the first half. After the interval, Brice continued
his perfect style and grabbed the second game in just 18 minutes with a 21-15 margin.
The deciding set was absolutely thrilling, as both shuttlers were playing at the same speed. The score was 9-9, when Brice played some wonderful strokes and set up an 11-9 lead, in the opening half of the set.
After the 60-second rest, Leverdez geared up his speed and started to dictate the pace of the rallies. The Indian failed to break the flow of the French player as he lost his control over the bird. Leverdez finished up the final set in 19 minutes with a
21-18 score on the board. The final score of this 57-minute thrilling match was 17-21, 21-15 and 21-18.
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