Korea Open Grand Prix Gold: Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif surges into Men’s Singles semi-final
Malaysia’s budding shuttler, Mohamad Arif Abdul Latif has delivered phenomenal performance as he has reached in the semi-final of the 2011 Korea Open Grand Prix Gold, which is his best performance in any GP Gold tournament so far.
In the quarter-final contest, Arif defeated the higher ranked and experienced team-mate Daren Liew, on Friday, December 9, in Korea.
The 22-year-old Arif, who is currently World Number 64, proved his mettle as he played tremendous badminton against Daren and finished the fight in straight sets. Daren failed to match the speed of his impressive opponent and bowed down in two games without
putting up strong resistance. Arif ended the fight by taking the court time for just 35 minutes.
In the first game, both Malaysian shuttlers played with aggression and remained close in the opening points. However, the young Arif injected more pace and power in his strokes and started to create a difference. He managed a small lead and maintained it
throughout the set and won it with a comfortable score of 21-16.
In the second game, Arif was everywhere in the court as he showed no mercy to his experienced rival and remained in superb control of the pace of rallies. He dictated Daren in all areas of the court and finished up the battle in a completely one-sided manner
with a striking margin of 21-9.
Arif was very happy after reaching his first ever semi-final in a Grand Prix Event.
He said, “I’m very happy with my performance as it’s the first time I have made the semi-finals of a GP Gold event. This is the break that I’ve been waiting for. It will, hopefully, be a turning point in my career. I intend to perform even better in the
semi-finals.
While talking about his semi-final contest against Korea’s Shon Wan Ho, the Malaysian said that it will be a 50-50 match as both shuttlers are going to meet for the first time.
Arif said, “I actually have a 50-50 chance against Wan-ho because I’ve never played him before and may surprise him.”
The current performance of Arif will revive his confidence and will help him in getting higher world ranking by putting up strong show against all top shuttlers in all international events.
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