Chou Tien Chen powers his way to quarter-final round of 2012 Iceland International
Chinese Taipei’s budding shuttler Chou Tien Chen stretched his winning streak in the Iceland Internationals and reserved a quarter-final spot on Friday, November 9, 2012.
He unseated Rasmus Holmboe Dahl of Denmark by registering a favourable result of 21-14 and 21-16 in a 30-minute tussle.
The Taipei campaigner, who is the top seeded shuttler of this tournament, played with great precision and sealed a straight-set victory.
Meanwhile, the Danish player also earned great deal of admiration for his fighting spirit which he showed throughout this encounter.
However, it certainly was not one of Rasmus’ best days as he had to face a woeful exit after receiving a 2-0 defeat.
In the first set, he took a great start and challenged his higher ranked competitor in all areas of the game.
He enjoyed an upper hand in couple of establishing rallies but then few back-to-back mistakes brought him down.
The opposing Taipei shuttler did not miss this counter-attack opportunity and counter-balanced the situation with a gutsy knock.
Chou Tien unleashed a flurry of power packed strokes which ultimately fetched valuable points for him.
He did not lose focus and dominated overall pace of the rallies before interval. He established a strong grip over the game with an indomitable total of 11.
This initial advantage proved a decisive factor in later part of the game as Rasmus could not come out of this deficit and surrendered after reading 14-21 score on the board.
However, he did not kneel down tamely as the next game saw him in a transformed character. The Danish campaigner launched an intensive attack and pushed his opponent on the back-foot.
He ruled the court until one-minute interval and it was felt that he will pocket this crucial match point to setup the third set.
At this stage, the Taipei shuttler stormed back with a strong reply and proved all the predictions wrong.
Chou Tien levelled the score in third quarter of the set and then established a respectable lead in the final stage.
He placed an overwhelming total of 21-16 and setup a quarter-final clash with the fifth seeded shuttler Kim Bruun.
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