Linda Zechiri surges into Women’s Singles semi-final: 2011 Bulgarian International
Bulgaria’s talented shuttler, Linda Zechiri surged into the Women’s Singles semi-final as she defeated Ozge Bayrak of Turkey in the quarter-final contest of the 2011 Bulgarian International, at Sofia, Bulgaria, on Saturday, October 8.
World Number 36 ranked shuttler, Zechiri, who is the third seed in the event, cheered the home crowd by playing wonderful badminton at the top-8 stage against Bayrak. The local shuttler won the match after working extra hard for three sets and emerged as
the winner in 62 minutes.
The Turkish shuttler delivered a phenomenal performance but failed to play well at the ending points and consequently lost the match with a narrow margin in the deciding set.
In the first set, both ladies played flawless badminton and progressed closely by keeping the pace of the rallies at the highest level. The Turkish was pushing the local shuttler in all areas of the court by playing to her maximum potential. Until the break,
Zechiri was trailing with a two-point deficit of 9-11.
After the break, the game remained interesting as both shuttlers were playing at the same level. However, Zechiri failed to play positive badminton at the ending points of the first game and lost it by a 19-21 score in 22 minutes.
The third seed bounced back in the match by playing fabulous badminton in the second set. She controlled the rallies from the starting points and continued her dominating run to finish it with a margin of 21-15, by taking 18 minutes.
The deciding game was a breath-taking battle between both shuttlers as they remained toe-to-toe in the whole game. The incredible exchange of long rallies made the crowd silent at the concluding points.
However, Zechiri felt a huge relief when she executed the winning stroke to finish the job in the third game in 22 minutes, with a 21-19 score on the board. The Bulgarian won the battle with a 19-21, 21-15 and 21-19 margin.
In the semi-final, Zechiri will take on top seed, Carolina Marin of Spain who won the quarter-final battle against Nicole Grether of Canada.
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