Hong Kong Open Super Series: Chen Long ousts R.M.V. Gurusaidutt in the Men’s Singles quarter-final
China’s in-form shuttler, Chen Long stretches his peerless performance as he has reserved a semi-final berth in the Men’s Singles semi-final of the 2011 Hong Kong Open Super Series. In the quarter-final showdown, the Chinese defeated India’s emerging young
player, R.M.V. Gurusaidutt.
The second seed Long, who is currently World Number 2 in the world standings, played with precision and won the quarter-final fight in straight games. The Chinese had to dig deep to chuck out the spirited Indian in a 44-minute fight.
Long took the opening set quite easily as the Indian failed to play fast badminton and bowed down without any considerable resistance. However, it was a close and interesting battle in the second game when Gurusaidutt made the higher ranked Chinese to work
hard for winning the game with a close margin.
In the first game, it was a smooth ride for the Chinese shuttler as he found no resistance from his Indian opponent. Long played with aggression and found the gaps quickly by working at his best speed. Gurusaidutt remained struggling in getting the bird
early as his Chinese rival was employing deceptive strokes from all areas of the court.
The Chinese remained on the right track as he executed perfect strokes in all areas of the court and won the first set with a terrific margin of 21-13 in 19 minutes.
In the following set, Gurusaidutt played on a different level as he remained in wonderful control of the rallies and showed no sign of slowing down. He disturbed the speed of the higher ranked Long by taking the bird from the tape of the net. The score remained
tight until the 60-second break in the second game.
After the interval, Long started to execute consecutive smashes but failed to find the right areas as Gurusaidutt was everywhere in the court. The Indian had the answer of all tactics put up by the Chinese.
The score reached at the breath-taking stage of 21-21 when the Indian just lost his focus. The Chinese took advantage and won the set by scoring the winning points by a tight margin of 23-21 in 25 minutes. The end result of this quarter-final contest was
21-13 and 23-21.
In the semi-final fight, Long will play against either his compatriot Chen Jin or Peter Hoeg Gade of Denmark.
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