Japan’s Sho Sasaki topples Park Sung Hwan in quarter-final of Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold 2011
Japan’s Men’s Singles shuttler, Sho Sasaki, has toppled the sixth seed, Park Sung Hwan of Korea, in the quarter-final of the 2011 Malaysian Open GP Gold, at Alor Setar, Malaysia, today May 6.
The 11th seed, Sasaki, had to work really hard for 51 minutes to beat Park Hwan, who tamed his compatriot and 14th seed, Wan Ho Shon, in the pre-quarterfinal. In the semi-final match of the championship, Sasaki will be fighting against
either Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia or Brice Leverdez of France.
In the opening set of the match, Park Hwan played a remarkable game by making his opponent work hard in every point of the game. In the opening half, the Korean was far ahead of the Japanese at 11-5. He was playing top class badminton by executing well placed
strokes in all corners of the court.
After taking a 60-second rest, Sasaki changed the tempo of the game to stop the rapid advancement of the opponent but failed as the Korean was not leaving any room for him to score points. The sixth seed, Park Hwan, spared no chance for Sasaki to fight back
in the match and clinched the opening game by a 21-12 difference in just 15 minutes.
In the second game, Sasaki surprised everybody in the indoor arena by delivering a stunning performance against the Korean. The Japanese became aggressive against the Korean and completely dominated the game in the entire set. He bagged the second set in
just 10 minutes with a surprising 21-8 score on the board.
The third set was a wonderful fight where both shuttlers played their best game. The score remained tight in the opening half, where Sasaki was managed to take a slight lead of 11-10. After taking one-minute rest, Park played positive game and levelled the
score at 14-14. The Japanese proved his skills by dominating the game at the net and remained successful in creating a big gap of 20-15.
The Korean worked hard to catch up to the speed of the opponent but failed as Sasaki was too strong to beat. The Japanese won the set by a 21-16 difference in 25 minutes. This 50-minute superb match ended in the favour of the Japanese with a 12-21, 21-8
and 21-16 difference.
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