Lene Clausen, Spela Silvester cement their spot in quarter-finals – Slovenia International Update
Women’s Doubles experts Lene Clausen and Spela Silvester powered their way to quarter-finals of FZ Forza Slovenia International by outshining Sarina Kohlfurst-Nathalie Ziesig in second round on May 11, 2012.
The pre quarter-final tussle, prolonged to three gruelling sets and ended with final figures of 20-22, 22-20 and 21-14.
Both teams sweat hard for 67 minutes and made this battle a memorable contest. They displayed commendable badminton craft in court and earned great deal of admiration from the audience.
The Austrian couple Sarina-Nathalie took a great start but it was not enough to pull off a win against lower ranked but spirited challengers.
On the other hand, the underrated pair Lene-Spela made a strong come back after a scratchy start and secured the honour to be in top eight teams of the event.
In opening game of the match, both contenders showed their intentions by putting thundering performance straight away in start.
They snapped each other’s heels and none of them could establish an unassailable lead until first half of set.
Later part of game also saw them chasing each other all the way to game point situation but twosome of Lene and Spela exposed the lack of depth and experience in finishing skills as Sarina-Nathalie bagged crucial set with 22-20 score on the board.
However, the losing couple tipped the scale in their favour in very next game. This time they filled the vacuum with a blistering knock.
Lene and Spela, who teamed up especially for this event, were bit cautious in the start as their rivals dictated them in most part of game but they shrugged off a relatively slow first half with power hitting in the last.
The Austrian duo Sarina-Nathalie, who was also third seeded in tournament, faltered in final stage and frittered away a golden chance of a straight-set victory. They knelt down after reading final total of 20-22.
Their below par performance in the decider also was a recipe for a mauling as the scratch pair Lene-Spela sealed a splendid victory without any trouble.
The victorious duo dented confidence of their higher ranked challengers with a seven-point lead and stole the limelight with concluding margin of 21-14.
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