Chinese Taipei Open: Shon Wan Ho wins epic battle against Simon Santoso in Men’s Singles round-of-16
Shon Wan Ho, World Number 29 shuttler from Korea penetrated into Men’s Singles quarter-final after winning an epic battle against Indonesia’s Simon Santoso in the round-of-16 of the 2011 Chinese Taipei Open, on Thursday, September 8, at Sinjhuang City in
Chinese Taipei.
Wan Ho, who is seeded at Number Nine in the Men’s Singles draw of the Championship, employed all of his skills against World Number 18, Santoso and won the match after a long and tight battle of three games. The Korean shuttler played a remarkable game for
82 minutes to beat the higher ranked Indonesian, who lost the match with a narrow margin.
It was the most thrilling battle of the day as both shuttlers entertained the local crowd with their highest skills in the game. All three games of this round-of-16 match remained quite close and engaged the interest of the big crowd until the end of the
match.
The first game progressed closely in the opening half as both players tried to put pressure on each other for getting a psychological advantage. However, the Korean started to get control of the rallies in the middle of the second-half. He managed a two-point
lead and maintained this gap until the end of the set and won it with a 21-18 margin in 24 minutes.
Santoso played a changed game in the second set and tried to target the fore-hand side of the Korean. He accelerated his speed at the net to place his shots in the right areas effectively. Wan Ho tried to break the flow of Santoso but made some unforced
errors and consequently lost the set with the same 18-21 margin in 26 minutes.
The final game was unbelievable for the crowd as both players progressed closely in the whole set. The positive and attacking play from both sides pushed the score at the breath-taking stage of 23-23.
The Korean proved his mental toughness at this stage and scored two successive points by playing attacking badminton and grabbed the set with a dramatic 25-23 margin in 32 minutes. This thrilling fight ended with the score of 21-18, 18-21 and 25-23.
Wan Ho will be up against the top seed, Nguyen Tien Minh of Vietnam in the Men’s Singles quarter-final.
Tags: