Brice Leverdez overwhelms Ivan Sozonov in Men’s Singles first round of the Thailand Open GP Gold
France’s Brice Leverdez has ousted Russia’s Ivan Sozonov in the Men’s Singles first round of the 2011 Thailand Open GP Gold, at Bangkok, Thailand. The match was played on Wednesday, June 8.
Leverdez, who is the thirteenth seed in the event, had to dig deep into his reserves to win the 55-minute rubber-set battle against a spirited Sozonov, who was unlucky in the end to lose the match.
In the first set of the match, Leverdez, who is the World Number 28, proved that he possesses a high level of skills by playing top quality badminton. He spared no room for Sozonov to come in a dominating position. The French kept his momentum going in the
first game by playing at his maximum speed.
Sozonov could not match the level of play that Leverdez produced. The French found no resistance from his opponent and clinched the opening game in just 15 minutes, with a superb margin of 21-13.
The Russian changed his strategy in the second set and started to play an aggressive game. The change in tactics worked well in his favour, as Leverdez failed to find sufficient opportunities to smash the bird. The French made many mistakes by throwing the
bird away from the side lines and hitting it into the net. His shaky play cost him the second game with a margin of 17-21, in 19 minutes.
The third set was mouth-watering for the Thai crowd, as both players demonstrated world-class badminton. In this deciding set, the level of the game was equal from both players as nobody could take a good lead in the first-half of the set.
However, in the concluding part of the third set, Leverdez was quite lucky as he played some superb shots and succeeded in winning the set by a 23-21 margin, in 21 minutes. The excellent fight of 55 minutes ended with a 21-13, 17-21 and 23-21 score on the
board.
In the Men’s Singles second round, Leverdez will fight against Wei Feng Chong of Malaysia, who defeated his younger team-mate, Zulfadli Zulkifli in the first round.
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