Korea Open Grand Prix Gold: Lee Hyun Il tames Tommy Sugiarto in the Men’s Singles quarter-final
Korea’s most experienced shuttler, Lee Hyun Il stretches his peerless run as he has reached into semi-final after taming Indonesia’s Tommy Sugiarto in the Men’s Singles quarter-final of the Korea Open Grand Prix Gold, on Friday, December 9, in Korea.
Lee Hyun, who is World Number 11 and the third seed in Korea Open, showed no mercy to Sugiarto in the pre-quarter-final contest as he finished up the match in straight games by working for just 40 minutes in the court. Sugiarto was quite helpless against
the fast and perfect game of the Korean and failed to win even a single game in the match.
The left-handed Korean delivered phenomenal performance in the opening set of the match and won it without facing any resistance from his Indonesian challenger. In the second set of the game, Sugiarto tried to put up strong resistance but failed to level
the match as his opponent was playing far better badminton.
Lee Hyun started the first game with precision as he worked well at the net by executing straight and cross-court net shots to break the flow of his opponent. Sugiarto struggled hard to find a good flow but failed to anticipate the variations of his higher
ranked Korean rival.
The Korean set up a good lead in the opening half and remained on the right track after the interval. He was perfect in his shot selection as his strokes laded in the right areas of his opponent’s court. Lee Hyun easily took the opening games with a one-sided
margin of 21-13 in just 21 minutes.
In the following set, Lee Hyun played in the similar style as he maintained his pressure on Sugiarto, who failed to execute his shots in an effective manner. He also missed many easy opportunities to win points. The planned and fast play of the Korean helped
him to win the second set with a remarkable score of 21-14. The final result of this 40-minute quarter-final contest was 21-13 and 21-14.
In the semi-final battle, Lee Hyun will take on the top seed and World Number Five, Chen Jin of China, who defeated Chong Wei Feng of Malaysia in the other quarter-final fight.
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