Jevon Gaskin, Johannes Hagen pave path to Boy’s Doubles semi-finals of MBBC Jr. International
The talented duo of Jevon Gaskin-Johannes Hagen proved their class against Chad Naramore-Shawn Whong and surged into semi-finals of Boy’s Doubles Under-19 category in MBBC Jr. International on July 18, 2012.
This three-set encounter was a Group A match which was played at Manhattan Beach, California, USA.
The victorious team placed favourable figures of 18-21, 22-20 and 21-19 and cleared group stage as winner to cement their spot in top four pairs of the event.
Jevon and Johannes, who belong to Barbados and Norway respectively, showed strong character and stood tall against the double trouble of US campaigners and crowd.
On the other hand, the native shuttlers frittered away a golden opportunity of straight-set win and surrendered in the ending two sets.
Now the duo will meet Mads Pliniussen-Walker Weinstein in the second last round of the event.
Earlier, their final encounter of group stage was full of drama as Jevon-Johannes blundered in the beginning but thundered in the next two games.
They opened their campaign in a cautious way and trod carefully until the first half of the opening set.
The opposing team Chad-Shawn relished full benefits of their confusion and gained a decent lead in 11-7 total before interval.
They maintained this edge also in the second half and bagged vital match point with a decisive margin of 21-18.
However, they failed to keep their challengers grounded in following game and squandered their effort of the first set.
Though, Jevon and Johannes remained under influence of a first set loss in the beginning but they came out of this phase with a power packed campaign.
They fetched four consecutive points after 4-5 and then pushed their competitors on the back-foot by registering 11-7 total.
After one-minute break, the US shuttlers stormed back into contest and counterbalanced the situation with 16-16 margin.
The second set remained on a knife’s edge until game point situation but Jevon and Johannes tipped the scale in their favour with an edgy knock of 22-20.
They did not lose this momentum and dictated their challengers all the way to final moments of decider. They raised their hands as victors after registering significant score of 21-19.
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