Kaveh Mehrabi brushes aside Jeff Tho in epic battle in first round of Australian Open GP Gold
Iran’s Kaveh Mehrabi advanced in the Men’s Singles second round after beating Jeff Tho of Australia in the opening round of the Australian Open GP Gold 2011, in Melbourne, Australia today. Mehrabi took 74 minutes of hard labour to chuck out the local shuttler
in a three-set thrilling match. In the second round of the event, Mehrabi will fight against the fourth seed Arvind Bhat of India who defeated Nicholas Jinadasa of the USA in straight sets of the first round.
Mehrabi started the game in an aggressive style and took a slight lead of 6-4 in the start of the first set. Jeff levelled the score by matching the speed of the opponent. Both shuttlers were playing at their best, as they remained toe-to-toe in the opening
half of the first set.
The Australian was leading the game by 11-10, where the Iranian shuttler started to gear up his speed and score four points in a row to take a three point lead. The local player again levelled the score by playing a better game and reached 18-18. The score
remained equal at 24-24, where Mehrabi managed to grab two points in a row and won the opening set by a narrow margin of 26-24 in 31 minutes.
In the second game, Jeff bounced back in the match by playing a much better game. He remained close to the opponent in the first half of the second game. After the break, the local shuttler kept the pace high and remained positive throughout the set, winning
it with a 21-19 score on the board in 23 minutes.
Both shuttlers put up a good show in front of the packed arena by playing quality badminton. The score progressed with the equal pace from both sides and reached 12-12. Mehrabi changed his tactics by keeping the bird low and his net strokes were perfect,
earning him a comfortable lead of 18-14. He eventually finished up the final set with a 21-17 margin in just 20 minutes. The final score of this 74-minute battle was, 26-24, 19-21 and 21-17.
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