Li Xuerui defeats Pui Yin Yip to surge into Women’s Singles semi-final at London Olympics 2012
China’s young player Li Xuerui showed a wonderful run as she secured her place in Women’s Singles semi-final after proving her worth against Hong Kong’s Pui Yin Yip in quarter-final battle at the London Olympics 2012 at Wembley Arena, in London, on Thursday,
August 2.
The higher ranked Xuerui, who is third seeded shuttler in Women’s Singles draw of the tournament, showed her superb class and remained successful in beating her un-seeded opponent in an emphatic manner.
The World Number Three Xuerui played remarkable badminton and easily grabbed the first set. However, she had to work extra hard in the following set and took it with a tight score to end up the fight in straight games.
On the other hand, the lower ranked Pui Yin also showed a tremendous performance on court but failed to overpower her impressive Chinese opponent and lost to her with a reasonable margin on the board.
In the first game, Xuerui played with control and dictated the pace of rallies quite easily by taking the bird timely.
The spirited Chinese shuttler was everywhere on court as she took the bird early and made her Hong Kong rival work hard to return the bird from all corners.
Xuerui managed to set up an amazing lead on score board until the one-minute mid-game interval.
After the break, Xuerui continued showing her tremendous craft and maintained a superb gap on score board all the way to end up the set with a stunning 21-12 score on the board.
In the following set, Pui Yin also played aggressive badminton and gave a tough time to her Chinese rival by playing positively.
In the meanwhile, Xuerui failed to take an early lead this time as she could not create gaps in her rival’s court. Until the break, the score was quite tight on the board.
After the interval, both ladies remained neck-to-neck by playing at the same level and reached at 20-20 when Xuerui played with precision and took the ending points to take the game with a 22-20 margin on the board.
The impressive Xuerui emerged as victorious in straight games against Pui Yin with a decent score of 21-12 and 22-20.
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