Malaysia Open Super Series: Wang Xin narrowly defeats Eriko Hirose in Women’s Singles round-of-16
China’s World Number Two, Wang Xin won the Women’s Singles round-of-16 encounter with a narrow margin against Japan’s Eriko Hirose at the 2012 Malaysia Open Super Series in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Thursday, January 12.
Xin, who is the second seed in Women’s Singles main draw of Malaysia Open, struggled really hard against the in-form Japanese and managed to win the match with a close score.
The Chinese lady took 63 minutes in the court to overpower Hirose who could not dominate the pace of rallies in the deciding game.
Hirose played tremendous badminton in the opening two games and stretched her higher ranked Chinese rival to a rubber game. However, she failed to play dominating game in the ending points of deciding set and lost the match with a decent score.
The opening set of this clash was quite interesting when both ladies engaged the crowd by putting up top quality show. They remained close in first half and also remained equal in second half of the game.
The score reached at the breath-taking stage of 21-21 when Xin showed her class and played tremendous strokes and eventually took the set with a 23-21 score on the board.
In the second game, it was Xin who remained dominant in the whole set and remained ahead of her Japanese rival until the ending points.
The Chinese shuttler was leading the game by reaching 20-16 when her rival Hirose saved four match points and ended the game by scoring six consecutive points. Xin failed to finish the second game and lost it with a tight score of 20-22.
In the final set, Xin did not drop the speed of rallies as she played with full aggression and established a comfortable lead of 11-7 until the 60-second interval.
After the break, Hirose took four points in a row and levelled the score by reaching 11-11. At this stage, Xin became quicker and took over the control of rallies. She scored seven consecutive points and established a huge lead of 18-11.
Xin’s positive play in the concluding phase helped her to end the deciding game with a 21-16 score on the board. This Women’s Singles pre-quarter-final battle ended with a margin of 23-21, 20-22 and 21-16.
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