India Open Grand Prix Gold: Taufik Hidayat tames Sourabh Varma to wins his first title of current year
Indonesia’s experienced shuttler, Taufik Hidayat, finally gets a much needed breakthrough as he has won his first Men’s Singles title of current year at the 2011 India Open Grand Prix Gold. In the final showdown of the tournament, he tamed India’s Sourabh
Varma, on Sunday, December 25, in Lucknow, India.
Taufik, who is currently World Number 12 in Men’s Singles world rankings, has been desperately looking for a title but failed until the last week of current year when he got rid of his bad run and won the title at the India Open.
The Indonesian played with wonderful anticipation and overpowered the young and talented Indian, Sourabh, in a straight set fight. He consumed 46 minutes in the court to chuck out his opponent and claimed the title to end the year in style.
In the first set of this final battle, Taufik played with precision and won it with a comfortable score. However, in the second game, Sourabh elevated his level of play and matched the speed of Taufik but failed to control the bird in the end and lost the
set with a decent margin.
Taufik, who is known for his calmness in the court, played with wonderful anticipation and precision in the opening set. He was focused in the game and played with aggression to dictate the pace of the rallies.
On the other hand, the Indian also played well in front of his home crowd and trouble his higher ranked Indonesian opponent in a few points. However, Taufik was on the driving seat and did not let his opponent fight back in the game. He took the set with
a six-point difference by a 21-15 score on the board.
In the following set, the Indian played superb game by accelerating his speed in all areas of the court. He took the bird early at the net and troubled his challenger by executing perfect attacking lobs in both corners of rear court. The score remained close
until the concluding points of the second game.
At this crucial stage, Taufik played an attacking badminton and finished the second set with a reasonable margin of 21-18. He won the title match in straight sets with a decent score of 21-15 and 21-18.
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