Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold: Sourabh Varma ousts Shu Wada in Men’s Singles second round
India’s emerging player Sourabh Varma showed his class when and reserved his place in the top-16 after beating Japan’s Shu Wada in Men’s Singles second round at Malaysia Open Grand Prix Gold in Malaysia, on Thursday, May 3.
The World Number 49 Sourabh, who has been struggling for the last few months to get good results, showed his impressive craft while playing against Wada and won his second round fight in three games.
The Indian, who is seventh seed in Men’s Singles draw of Malaysia Open, was everywhere in the court and ousted his Japanese opponent in rubber games by working hard for 41 minutes.
On the other hand, Wada could not start the first set well but he managed to take the second game. However, he failed to dominate the pace in the final set and lost the match with a reasonable difference.
Sourabh took an incredible start in the opening game when he hammered his opponent and easily took a remarkable 11-1 lead on the board.
Wada was completely helpless against the attacking and positive play of his Indian opponent and remained struggling to get his rhythm.
After the break, Sourabh continued his smooth sailing in the first set and did not face even a slight problem in taking it with a stunning 21-7 score on the board.
In the second set, Wada changed the whole picture as he was on the driving seat this time. He played tremendous badminton and put up a superb 11-6 lead on the board until the mid-game interval.
After the break, Sourabh changed his game plan but failed to place his shots in right areas. He could not break the rhythm of Wada and lost the set with a huge difference of 10-21.
In the deciding set, both men played fast game in opening points but Sourabh became aggressive as he did not miss any chance to execute powerful smashes and earned a remarkable advantage of 11-5 until the break.
After the mid-game interval, the higher ranked Indian remained consistent in his power play against his Japanese opponent and bagged the set in a comfortable fashion by a striking margin of 21-14.
Sourabh emerged as victorious against Wada in 41 minutes with an interesting score of 21-7, 10-21 and 21-14.
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