China’s Du Pengyu ousts Nguyen Tien Minh in the quarterfinal: 2011 Badminton Asia Championships
China’s Du Pengyu ousts Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam in the men’s singles quarter-final of the 2011 Badminton Asia Championships, at Chengdu in China today on April 22. The sixth seed, Pengyu, took two sets of 52 minutes to beat the fourth seed, Tien Minh
who defeated Keigo Sonoda of Japan in the round-of-16. In the semi-final, the young Chinese will face either the senior team-mate and top seed Lin Dan or the 11th seed Sho Sasaki of Japan.
In the starting points of the match, both shuttlers put up a good show by playing an attacking game. Pengyu was playing in his usual pace while Tien Minh was a little shaky in the starting points of the opening set. The young Chinese was enjoying the advantage
of the home ground and home crowd, as he was quite comfortable in driving the rallies.
However, Tien Minh managed to level the score at 8-8, where the Chinese accelerated his speed and scored three consecutive points to make it an 11-8 lead at the end of the first part of the set. After a one-minute rest, Tien Minh changed his game plan, but
failed to narrow the gap as the Chinese was playing with a considerable ease. Pengyu finished the opening set with a clear margin of 21-15, in 23 minutes.
The number six seed remained ahead of Tien Minh event in the second set. Pengyu established a comfortable difference of 11-5 in the opening half of the set. The quality of the game was superb from both parties involved, however the Vietnamese made a few
unforced errors that helped the Chinese in extending his lead and he pushed the score at 16-10.
At this stage of the second set, Tien Minh played positive game and narrowed the difference by reaching at 15-18. However, the young Chinese again dominated the game and by dictating the pace of the rallies and finished the set in 29 minutes with a decent
margin of 21-17. The concluding score of this 52-minute straight-set match was 21-15 and 21-17.
Tags: