Kestutis Navickas beats Krasimir Yankov in round-of-16 at the 2011 Russian Open Grand Prix
Lithuania’s Kestutis Navickas made his presence felt by beating Krasimir Yankov of Bulgaria, in the Men’s Singles round-of-16 at the 2011 Russian Open Grand Prix, in Russia, on Thursday, June 30, 2011.
The Lithuanian shuttler opened his campaign in spirited fashion, as he played to his full potential and emerged victorious in a straight-set fight, which took only 28 minutes of court time.
The opening set put up a wonderful demonstration of superb badminton in front of a packed indoor arena. Both shuttlers played with aggression, coupled with the fascinating tumbling net strokes to get high clears for executing powerful smashes. Until the
interval of the starting set, Kestutis managed a small lead of 11-9 against the Bulgarian shuttler, who failed to play well in the opening half.
After the break, the Lithuanian continued finishing the rallies whenever he found any opportunity in the match. He played with confidence and did not give any chance to his rival to comeback in the game. Navickas was successful in clinching the opening set
by a 21-16 margin in just 15 minutes.
In the second game of this thrilling match, both shuttlers again played well in the first-half of the set. However, the Lithuanian started to control the rallies by becoming quick in the rear court and picking the bird close from the net.
Kestutis reached at 11-7 in the first part of the second set, where Krasimir failed to stop the aggression of his opponent. After the interval, both shuttlers once again started to fight hard for every point, however, the Lithuanian worked better in the
concluding points and won the second game by a good gap of 21-14, in just 13 minutes.
This entertaining straight-set battle ended in the favour of Kestutis, who proved his worth by brushing aside the Bulgarian with a margin of 21-16 and 21-14.
In the Men’s Singles quarter-final clash, Kestutis is set to play against World Number 56 and seventh seed, Stanislav Pukhov of Russia, who thrashed Yuhan Tan of Belgium in straight-sets in the round-of-16.
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