Hiroyuki Endo, Kenichi Hayakawa secure quarter-final berth in 2012 Li Ning China Masters
Japan’s prime Men’s Doubles team Hiroyuki Endo-Kenichi Hayakawa proved their worth and escorted the country to the quarter-final round of the Li Ning China Masters on September 13, 2012.
They did not show any mercy to their compatriot shuttlers Takuto Inoue-Yuki Kaneko and sent them packing by registering a straight-set win.
This pre quarter-final battle, staged at the local badminton arena of Changzhou in China, took just 26 minutes to give out final figures of 21-14 and 21-15.
Both Japanese pairs were locked in a tough competition as there was no margin of error for anyone.
Though, Takuto-Yuki were in high spirits after their unbeatable run in preliminary stages but lack of experience hit them severely in the round of eight.
Meanwhile, World Number ten duo Hiroyuki-Kenichi employed all of their experience and brilliance in the game and locked the honour in a splendid manner.
They laid the foundation of their dominance straight away in the beginning of first set when their challengers lost a few valuable points in a row.
They did not squander this opportunity and placed a mountainous total of 11-7 before the announcement of break.
After one-minute interval, Hiroyuki and Kenichi injected more intensity in the attack and pushed the opposing team on the back-foot.
The top Japanese duo established a strong grip over game with 16-10 margin in the third quarter of the set and then served notice of their supremacy with 21-14 score on the board.
There was not much to do for Takuto and Yuki also in the second set as they did not have any reply to their opponents’ masterly crafted strokes.
In first half of the set, both contenders remained close on the points table until 5-5 but then Hiroyuki and Kenichi made up the difference by clinching a couple of uninterrupted points before 11-6.
Later part of the game was also dominated by them as they did not give their competitors even a single chance to bounce back.
They mounted pressure with 15-8 and maintained this lead until the favourable result of 21-15.
Now Hiroyuki and Kenichi are scheduled to meet Thien How Hoon-Wee Kiong Tan of Malaysia in the quarter-final of this Super Series.
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