India’s Sai Praneeth defeats Yu Hsien Lin in the first-round match of Badminton Asia Championships
India’s Sai Praneeth B. has defeated Yu Hsien Lin of Chinese Taipei, in the Men’s Singles first-round match in the Badminton Asia Championships 2011, in China, on April 19.
The Indian consumed 52 minutes of hard labour to brush aside Yu Hsien, in a thrilling three-set fight. In the second round, Praneeth will take on tenth seed, Kazushi Yamada of Japan, who crushed Chai Yuan Lu of Chinese Taipei, in the first round.
The back-up shuttler in the Indian National squad, Praneeth, proved his worth against Yu Hsien. His start to the match was not impressive, as he made many unforced errors and provided an opportunity to his opponent to take control of the game. He was apparently
under pressure and failed to get rid of it throughout the first set.
Yu Hsian played a superb game from the starting points and established a comfortable lead of 11-6, at the end of the first-half of the opening set. After the interval, the Indian tried to close the gap but failed as his opponent was playing a flawless game.
Praneeth lost the opening set with a big margin of 14-21, in just 15 minutes.
Praneeth bounced back in the second game and played a completely different game. His change in tactics worked well and he established a decent lead of 11-8, at the end of the first part of the second set. After the break, both players remained quite close
until 17-17, where Praneeth played smartly and won the second set with a 21-19 margin, in 19 minutes.
In the deciding set, both shuttlers entertained the crowd with a top quality game and remained close to each other until the end of the opening half of the game, where Praneeth was leading with an 11-7 margin. Yu Hsien had no answer to the aggressive approach
of the Indian, who was playing an attacking game to dominate the rallies.
Superb shot selection and flawless execution of strokes earned Praneeth the final set of the match in 18 minutes, with a 21-18 score on the board. The concluding score of this tremendous 52-minute match was 14-21, 21-19 and 21-18.
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