Li Xuerui beats Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in an epic Women’s Singles clash in Indonesia Open
China’s Li Xuerui had to work hard to grab her place in Women’s Singles quarter-final as she narrowly defeated Thailand’s spirited player Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in round-of-16 at the Indonesia Open Premier Super Series 2012 on Thursday, June 14, in Indonesia.
The World Number 3 Xuerui, who is seeded at number 4 in the draw of Indonesia Open, showed faced a tough resistance from her lower ranked Thai opponent and emerged as the winner with a tight margin.
The higher ranked Chinese took the first game with a narrow difference but lost the second set with a huge margin. However, she managed to win the final battle with a comfortable margin and advanced into the top-eight stage.
The World Number 17 Porntip, on the other hand, showed her superb skills in the court as she played with impressive precision throughout the competition but remained unlucky to overpower the pace of rallies in the deciding game and lost the battle in three
games with a tight score.
In the first game, it was Porntip who controlled the pace of rallies from the opening points but failed to remain ahead on the board as she lost her focus and her Chinese opponent ended the gap until the mid-game interval.
After the break, the score remained close from both sides and reached at 21-21 when Xuerui played positive and smart badminton and took the set with a 23-21 score on the board.
In the second set, the Chinese could not maintain her impressive performance as her Thai opponent was in commanding position this time.
Porntip remained in wonderful control in the second game as her Chinese opponent could not play positive badminton this time. Xuerui lost the second game with a one-sided margin of 14-21.
In the deciding set, it was Porntip played well in the first half but failed to stop the progress of her higher ranked Chinese opponent.
In the meanwhile, Xuerui played dominating badminton and managed to take the set with an impressive margin of 21-16.
Xuerui won this Women’s Singles round-of-16 battle in 50 minutes with a 23-21, 14-21 and 21-16 score on the board.
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