Indonesia Open GP Gold: Sho Sasaki secures a quarter-final berth in Men’s Singles category
Sho Sasaki, the most successful shuttler from Japan, had to dig into his arsenal to secure his place in Men’s Singles quarter-final after defeating Malaysia’s Misbun Ramdan Mohmed Misbun in a tough round-of-16 clash at the Indonesia Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton 2012 on Thursday, September 27, in Indonesia.
The World Number Six Sasaki, who has been seeded at number 2 in Men’s Singles main draw in Indonesia Open, found a tough resistance from his young Malaysian challenger and managed to win the battle in a narrow fashion.
Sasaki was not prepared for a spectacular show of top quality badminton put up by Misbun Ramdan in the opening set. However, he managed to find a timely flow and took the following sets to wrap up victory with a nail-biting margin in 52 minutes.
In the meanwhile, the lower ranked Misbun Ramdan proved that he is ready to take bigger challenges as he played with aggression and won the first game.
Nonetheless, the Malaysian player played good badminton in the following games but remained unlucky in the ending points of the match and lost it with a respectable total on score board.
Sasaki started his campaign in a dominating fashion in first game but failed to maintain his control of the pace and remained slightly behind his rival until the break.
After the interval, Sasaki tried his best to play positive badminton but could not stop the rapid progress of his challenger and lost the set with a 16-12 score on the board.
The second game was also interesting as Misbun Ramdan again took a reasonable lead until the break.
In the concluding half, the Malaysian failed to keep distance on score board as Sasaki geared up his speed and took the set with a reasonable margin of 21-15.
Sasaki played controlled badminton in the deciding game and did not let his challenger to dominate the pace of rallies in opening half.
Japanese shuttler continued showing his domination in the concluding points of final set and took the set with a 21-18 score on the board.
The higher ranked Sasaki managed to win the battle in three games of 52 minutes with a close margin of 16-21, 21-15 and 21-18.
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