Chetan Anand advances to meet Taufik Hidayat in the third round of the US Open Grand Prix Gold 2011
Indian shuttler, Chetan Anand defeated Brice Leverdez of France in the second round of US Open Grand Prix 2011 on Tuesday, July 12 to advanced to the third round, where he will face Indonesia’s Taufik Hidayat in the Men’s Singles category. The US Open is
taking place at the city of Orange, California.
Chetan, World Number 92, played remarkable badminton against Leverdez, who was the 13th seed in the Men’s Singles category. The Indian took only 36 minutes to get rid of his French opponent in a well fought straight-set match.
The opening set of this second-round match was exhilarating to say the least, as both players delivered a superb performance in the first part of the game. Chetan, who has recovered from an injury which kept him away from the arena for almost four months,
played a stunning game against the French and managed a 2-point lead at 11-9, by the interval.
Leverdez changed his strategy and picked up speed at the net to dominate the game, but failed as his opponent’s net play was perfect. Chetan picked the bird early from the tape of the net and pushed his opponent to both corners of the rear court. The Frenchman
had no answer to the perfect lobs and high clears of Chetan, who found his momentum and finished off the opening game in 17 minutes with a 21-18 margin.
In the second game, Leverdez kept the Indian away from net and controlled the rallies in the initial points of the game. However, Chetan started to deliver strong pushes with occasional cross net strokes, which earned him a good position in the second set.
The score remained tight until the ending phase of the second game, where Chetan played some fascinating shots to clinch the second set 21-19 score in 19 minutes, and consequently winning the match. The final score of this straight-set match was 21-18 and
21-19.
In the third round, Chetan will play against the top seed, Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia, who defeated Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei in the second round.
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