India Open GP Gold: Fran Kurniawan and Shendy Puspa Irawati enter in Mixed Doubles semi-final
Indonesia’s Fran Kurniawan and Shendy Puspa Irawati have reached in the Mixed Doubles semi-final after beating Malaysia’s Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in the quarter-final match of the 2011 India Open GP Gold, in Lucknow, India, on Friday, December 23.
The newly formed Indonesian couple overpowered the experienced Malaysian duo after working hard for three games. They ended the winning streak of Peng Soon and Liu Ying in 56 minutes and reserved a berth in the semi-final of the tournament.
In the opening game, the Malaysian couple put up superb show of top class badminton and won the set with a comfortable margin. In the following set, Kurniawan and Irawati worked really hard and levelled the match by taking the game with a close difference. In the final set, the Indonesians showed no mercy to the Malaysian rivals and ended the set with an impressive score.
The Malaysian shuttlers played dominating game in the opening set of the match as they faced no trouble from their challengers. However, Kurniawan and Irawati managed to level the score at 7-7. At this stage, the Malaysians accelerated their pace and remained ahead of their Indonesian opponents in the whole set. The Indonesian duo failed to impress the crowd in the first set and lost it with a good margin of 16-21.
In the second game, both sides played tremendous badminton and remained neck-to-neck until the score reached at 10-10. The Malaysian duo controlled the pace of the game at this stage and reached at 20-16. However, they remained unlucky at this stage as they failed to score the last point. The Indonesians saved four match points and won the set with a tight score of 22-20.
In the final game, Kurniawan and Irawati established impressive lead from the opening points of first half. They remained ahead of their Malaysian rivals in the whole set and finished it with an impressive score of 21-14. The overall score of this 56-minute contest was 16-21, 22-20 and 21-14.
In the semi-final showdown, Kurniawan and Irawati will be up against the top seeds, Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam of Thailand.
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