Korea Open Grand Prix Gold: Ji Hoon Hong stuns Wang Zhengming in the Men’s Singles round-of-16
The biggest upset of the event day came when Korea’s Ji Hoon Hong sunned the fourth seed Wang Zhengming of China in the Men’s Singles round-of-16 in the 2011 Korea Open Grand Prix Gold, in Korea, on Thursday, December 8.
Ji Hoon played displayed phenomenal performance against Zhengming, who is currently ranked at number 14 in the Men’s Singles world rankings. The Chinese failed to overpower the spirited Korean and lost the rubber-set match, which took 87 minutes of top class
badminton from both sides. The Korean finished the match in style and entered into quarter-final of the home event.
The opening set was close until the ending points when the Chinese played well and took advantage in the match by winning it. In the following game, the Korean played flawless game by increasing his speed and took the second set with a decent score. The
final set was not that tough as compared to both previous games because the Korean finished it with a good margin.
Zhengming was the heavy favourite on paper to win this fight as he was up against an un-seeded and inexperienced Korean opponent. However, Ji Hoon made things challenging for the Chinese in the first set when they progressed closely.
However, in the concluding phase, the Korean failed to finish the opening set as he played a few wrong shots and lost the set with a tight score of 19-21.
In the second game, the fight proceeded in the similar tough fashion as both shuttlers played attacking and positive badminton. The Chinese failed to dominate the game this time as the Korean was quicker in taking the bird. Ji Hoon clinched the second game
with a decent 21-18 score on the board.
In the final game of this mouth-watering battle, Ji Hoon displayed terrific performance as he remained ahead of the Chinese and finished off the game easily with a comfortable margin of 21-15. The final result of this 87-minute contest was 19-21, 21-18 and
21-15.
In the quarter-final contest, the Korean will take on his higher ranked compatriot, Shon Wan Ho, who crushed Malaysia’s Kwong Beng Chan in the pre-quarter-final match.
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