MBBC Jr. International: Johannes Hagen, Carl Christian Hem clear first hurdle in Boy’s Doubles event
Norway’s Johannes Hagen-Carl Christian Hem played flawless badminton and won opening match of Boys Doubles Under-22 category in MBBC Jr. International on Tuesday, July 17, 2012.
They thrashed Roberto Humblers-Franklin Ramirez in this Group A encounter which was staged in Manhattan, USA.
However, it was not a smooth road to victory as they had to go all the way to three hard fought games before registering a favourable result of 15-21, 21-19 and 21-16.
The Norwegian campaigners displayed commendable fighting spirit as they survived this battle despite of going down in the opening part.
On the other hand, the Guatemala shuttlers could not capitalise their early advantage and surrendered in disgraceful manner.
Roberto and Franklin, who hold fourth position in tournament rankings, took off in perfect manner and cruised to success in the very first set.
They masterly controlled overall pace of the rallies and did not give their higher ranked rivals a single chance to strike back.
In first half, they were bit cautious and trod carefully until 7-5 but then they picked up some speed to place a respectable total of 11-7 before the interval.
This four-point advantage helped them in later part of the game as they prevailed in four consecutive rallies after 13-11 and put their challengers under great pressure.
The top ranked duo Johannes-Carl could not come out of this deficit and gave up the futile chase after reading 15-21 score on the board.
However, they managed to counter-balance the situation by grabbing very next match point. This time they did not repeat previous mistakes and outclassed the opposing team in all areas of the game.
They put decent figure of 11-9 before announcement of break and then pushed their challengers into the dark by registering decisive margin of 21-19.
Third set turned into survival of the fittest as both teams were equal with one victory each.
They chased each other all the way to third quarter of the decider but then Norwegian shuttlers struck hard in the final stage.
They pocketed seven out of last nine points and raised hands as Champion with scoreboard flashing 21-16 total in their favour.
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