Maldives International Badminton Challenge: China’s Mingyu Chen ousts Raj Popat at round-of-16
China’s talented player Mingyu Chen proved his mettle as he reached into Men’s Singles quarter-final after defeating Raj Popat of Wales in round-of-16 clash at the Maldives International Badminton Challenge 2012 in Maldives, on Thursday, May 31.
The Chinese youngster put up gutsy show in the court by playing to his maximum potential and proved his worth by taming his higher ranked rival in a sensational manner.
The in-form Mingyu played attacking and controlled badminton in the whole match against Popat and remained successful in ending it in straight games with a stunning margin on the score board.
In the meanwhile, the eighth seeded Popat played well in the opening game but lost it with a narrow score. In the second game he failed to match the speed of his rival and lost the set with a huge margin.
In the first game, both men played with aggression as they executed powerful shots in all areas of the court and the cracking sounds of smashes could be heard in the whole indoor arena.
They did not miss any chance to put pressure on each other and progressed while remaining neck-to-neck in the court until the mid-game interval.
After the break, Popat injected more power in his shots but failed to shake the balance of his lower ranked Chinese rival in the court.
At the ending phase of opening set, it was the underdog Chinese shuttler who showed his marvellous skills and wrapped up ending points to grab the set with a tight margin of 21-19.
In the second game, the confident Mingyu continued his aggressive play in the court and did not show any respect to his higher ranked opponent and also managed to take a stunning lead until the break.
After the interval, Mingyu remained positive and composed without slowing down the pace of the game. He did not show any signs of confusion in the whole competition and won the second set with a one-sided margin of 21-9.
Mingyu stunned the eighth seeded Popat in straight games in just 38 minutes by putting up an impressive 21-19 and 21-9 score on the board.
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