Daren Liew defeats Srikanth K. in Men’s Singles second round at Malaysia Open GP Gold
Malaysia’s elite shuttler Daren Liew reached into Men’s Singles round-of-16 after defeating India’s young player Srikanth K. in the second round of Malaysia Open GP Gold 2012 on Thursday, May 3, in Malaysia.
The fourth seed Daren, who has been placed at number 32 in world rankings, had to dig into his reserves to overpower his talented Indian opponent in a well-fought contest that took three games.
The higher ranked Malaysian lost the opening set but found his way back in the second game to level the match. However, he was impressive in the final set and took it easily to register victory over his Indian rival.
On the other hand, Srikanth played with precision in first game but failed to dictate the pace and eventually lost the match in three-games of 49 minutes.
In the first game, Srikanth showed his inspiring skills in the court as he played with impressive speed by taking the bird early. He was in complete control and remained slightly ahead of Daren in the opening half.
Until the mid-game interval, the young Indian was the leader in the set with an 11-7 score on the board.
After the interval, Daren tried to dominate the pace by taking shots at net but failed to live up to expectations and lost the game to Srikanth with a decent margin of 18-21.
In the second set, the Indian put up superb show in opening rallies and remained equal to Daren until the score reached at 7-7.
At this stage, the higher ranked Malaysian changed his strategy and started to play superb net shots. It worked well and the Malaysian managed to establish an 11-7 lead.
After the interval, Daren did not let his Indian opponent to fight back and level the score at any stage. He bagged the game with a margin of 21-17 and levelled the match with a 1-1 set each.
In the final set, Srikanth could not maintain his speed and also failed to take the bird early which helped his opponent to get a wonderful control.
Daren remained in commanding position throughout the deciding game and wrapped it with a one-sided 21-8 margin on the score board.
The Malaysian won this rubber-set contest against Srikanth by taking 49 minutes with a margin of 18-21, 21-17 and 21-8.
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