Lee Chong Wei works hard to beat Sho Sasaki in Group A match of the 2011 BWF Super Series Finals
The World Number One, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, had to dig into his arsenal to get rid of lower ranked shuttler, Sho Sasaki of Japan in the Men’s Singles Group A match at the 2011 BWF Super Series Finals, in China, on Wednesday, December 14.
Chong Wei, who has been playing impressive badminton in all Super Series events of the current year, started his campaign in the last major event of 2011 in a quivering way. He struggled hard to get rid of Sasaki, who has also been delivering phenomenal performance against top shuttlers for the last 11 months.
The higher ranked Malaysian won the first game easily by playing in his usual fast and attacking style. In the following game, Chong Wei became a little relaxed which helped the Japanese to take the game with a decent margin. However, in the deciding game, the Malaysian played at his maximum speed and emerged as the winner with a convincing score.
Right from the opening points in the first set, the Malaysian played to his full potential and established a wonderful lead against the Japanese opponent, who failed to match the speed of the top seed. Chong Wei remained on the right track and won the set with a remarkable margin of 21-11.
In the following game, Sasaki played with courage as he accelerated his speed to match the pace of the rallies and remained equal to his challenger until the score reached at 11-11. The Japanese played positive badminton at this stage and took lead against Chong Wei, who became slow in the concluding phase of the second game and lost it by a margin of 18-21.
Stung by the loss of the second game, Chong Wei became aggressive in the final set. He found his momentum and remained miles ahead of Sasaki throughout the game. The Japanese failed to level the score even for a single time in the whole set.
The top seed won the game with a striking score of 21-12. Chong Wei ended this Men’s Singles three-set match in 52 minutes by a 21-11, 18-21 and 21-12 score on the board.
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