Fang Yang Lim stuns Michael Lahnsteiner in Men’s Singles round-of-16 at US Open Grand Prix Gold
Malaysia’s Fang Yang Lim surprised everyone by reaching into Men’s Singles quarter-final after showing a strong character in round-of-16 clash against his higher ranked rival Michael Lahnsteiner of Austria at the Yonex OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold 2012 on Wednesday, July 4, in USA.
The un-seeded Fang Yang showed a spectacular performance while contesting against the seventh seeded Lahnsteiner and won the match without losing any game.
The lower ranked Malaysian player was calm and composed on court and he handled the crucial situations in a tremendous way. He did not let his higher ranked rival to dictate the pace at any stage and emerged as the winner of the contest with a decent margin.
On the other hand, the seventh seeded Lahnsteiner could not show his remarkable skills and also failed to deal with the mounting pressure of being the higher ranked shuttler on court. He could not produce good form and eventually went down in straight games in 52 minutes.
In the first set, Fang Yang showed a strong performance when he matched the speed of rallies and remained stick around his rival until the mid-game interval.
After the break, both men continued their safe play until the ending stage when Fang Yang did not spare any chance to finish off rallies and took the first game by a 21-19 score on the board.
In the following set, Lahnsteiner showed his aggression in opening rallies but failed to push Fang Yang on back foot. He could not create a reasonable gap on score board until the end of first half as his rival was quick and positive on court.
After the mid-game interval, the un-seeded Malaysian remained consistent in his safe and positive play and kept an upper hand over Lahnsteiner throughout the battle. He was commanding the pace of rallies while remaining fully focused to his game plan.
Fang Yang was incredible in his anticipation and also in his execution of shots. He remained on track all the way in the second set and took it with a close margin of 21-19.
The in-form Fang Yang emerged as the winner in this round-of-16 match by proving his worth against Lahnsteiner with a nerve-racking 21-19 and 21-19 score on the board.
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