Iceland International 2011: Mathias Borg topples Jesper Laumand in the Men’s Singles round-of-16
Sweden’s Mathias Borg powers his way into the Men’s Singles quarter-final after thrashing Denmark’s Jesper Laumand in the round-of-16 contest in the Iceland International 2011, in Iceland on Friday, November 11.
Borg, who is seeded at number 2 in the Men’s Singles draw of the event, played top class badminton in the pre-quarter-final and won the fight in straight games by taming his rival. The second seed spent only 37 minutes in the court to surge into the quarter-final
of the tournament.
The Swedish started his campaign against the Laumand in a positive and composed manner. He was playing safe strokes to avoid unforced errors and forced his opponent to work hard in every corner of the court.
Laumand struggled hard to take the bird early but failed to do that as his opponent was not sparing any chance for him to dominate the rallies. Until the interval, Borg was leading with a terrific margin of 11-5.
In the following part of the opening set, Laumand accelerated his speed to reduce the difference but his opponent was playing with superb anticipation and exceptional speed. Borg displayed his wonderful skills which helped him in dominating the pace of the
game and he eventually won the opening set by a remarkable 21-9 score in just 13 minutes.
The second set was interesting as Laumand played attacking badminton this time. He became fast at the net to put pressure on his opponent and remained close at 9-11 until the one-minute break. After the break, Borg changed his tactics and started to push
the bird away from the net to tackle the spinning net shots of his opponent.
This strategy worked really well for Borg and he remained successful in winning the set by remaining focused in the game with a margin of 21-16 in 17 minutes. The Danish failed to produce winning performance in the second set and lost the match in straight
games. The concluding result of this round-of-16 contest was 21-9 and 21-16.
In the Men’s Singles quarter-final, Borg will take on Iceland’s Magnus Ingi Helgason, who defeated his team-mate Egill Guolaugsson in straight games in the pre-quarter-final match.
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