Muhammad Hafiz Hashim eases into the second stage in the New Zealand International Challenge 2011
Malaysia’s Muhammad Hafiz Hashim booked his place in the men’s singles second round after beating United States’ Nicolas Jinadasa in the first round of the New Zealand International Challenge 2011, at Auckland, New Zealand on Friday, April 1. Hafiz Hashim
will meet the local shuttler Jow Wu in the second round.
Hafiz started the game in a very thrilling fashion by hitting powerful smashes and picking the shuttle c**k quite early at the net. He remained ahead of Nicolas in the first part of the opening set and reached at 11-5 till the interval. After the break,
the Malaysian remained dominant in the game and won it with a wonderful margin of 21-12 in just 14 minutes.
The 28-year-old shuttler kept the pace of the game quite high in the second set. Nicolas played a better game in the starting points and reached 7-7, where Hafiz changed his tactics by playing attacking strokes more often. His strokes landed perfectly on
the side lines of the court that earned him four consecutive points. He established a comfortable four-point lead at 11-7 till the 60-second rest.
Nicolas worked very hard to match the speed of the Malaysian but failed to stop the successive run of the opponent, who was playing perfect game. Hafiz won the second set by consuming 15 minutes with a 21-15 score on the board. He emerged as the winner in
this 29-minute match with a 21-12 and 21-15 win.
Hafiz left the Malaysian national men's singles squad in January, 2011 and now he represents his country as an independent player at International level. He is currently ranked World number 33 and is determined to improve his performance to earn ranking
points for the participation in BWF World Badminton Championships 2011.
If Hafiz manages to win the title or even plays the final, he will have high chances to get close to the top-24 players in the world ranking. It is the rule designed by the Badminton World Federation that three shuttlers in any category can participate in
World Championships if they are ranked in the top-24 spots in the world rankings. Hence, Hafiz Hashim is trying to get as many points as he can to represent his country in the mega event.
Apart from Hafiz, there are also some other men’s singles shuttlers from Malaysia who won their first round matches in Auckland, yesterday. These shuttlers are, Goh Soon Huat and K. Yogendran. Soon Huat proved his worth against the local player, Brent Miller,
by beating him in straight games, whereas Yogendran defeated Kaizar Bobby Alexander of Indonesia in a similar fashion, in straight sets.
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