India Open GP Gold: Alamsyah Yunus tames Zulfadli Zulkiffli in the round-of-16 – badminton news
Indonesia’s Alamsyah Yunus has powered his way into the top-8 stage after taming Malaysia’s Junior World Champion, Zulfadli Zulkiffli, in the Men’s Singles round-of-16 at the 2011 India Open GP Gold, in India, on Thursday, December 22.
Yunus, who has been placed at 30th position in the Men’s Singles world rankings, showed no mercy to his Malaysian opponent and ended the contest in straight games. He took 43 minutes to chuck out his challenger in straight sets and occupied a berth in the quarter-final of the tournament.
Zulkiffli played well in both games but not enough to get rid of the domination of his higher ranked Indonesian opponent and lost the match with a decent score.
Both shuttlers put up superb show of aggressive badminton and remained close until the concluding points when the Indonesian played smartly and took the game with a decent margin. In the following game, Zulkiffli elevated his play in the first half but lost his focus in the concluding phase and eventually lost the game with a comfortable difference.
Right from the starting points, both shuttlers played terrific badminton by maintaining the pace of the game at the highest level. Yunus was trying to play net shots but his opponent was quicker in taking these net shots quite early from the tape of the net. The score progressed equally and reached at 18-18.
Zulkiffli became a little slow and executed a few wrong strokes at this stage. Yunus took advantage of these weak shots and won the ending points of the opening set to bag it with a margin of 21-18.
In the following set, this crunchy fight proceeded closely as no one could manage a clear lead in the first half. The score was 13-13 when the higher ranked Indonesian took over the control of the pace and started to push his opponent on back foot.
Yunus employed his extensive experience to tame his rival and emerged as the winner of the second game with a 21-15 score on the board. He won this 43-minute battle in straight sets with a decent margin of 21-18 and 21-15.
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