Nguyen Tien Minh stuns Sho Sasaki in Men’s Singles semi-final of Australian Open GP Gold
Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh displayed a sensational performance when he outplayed defending champion Sho Sasaki of Japan in Men’s Singles semi-final of 2012 Australian Open GP Gold in Australia, on Saturday, April 7.
The fourth seeded Tien Minh, who is currently World Number 12, ended the winning run of in-form Sasaki, who was the second seed in the tournament.
Tien Minh was impressive in his game plan as he did not let his higher ranked Japanese rival to dictate the pace and also remained positive throughout the contest.
The Vietnamese delivered spectacular performance and bagged the match in straight games with a convincing margin on the board by working hard for just 38 minutes.
On the other hand, the World Number Six Sasaki could not defend his title as he failed to continue his winning streak in the Australian Open and crashed out without putting up an impressive show while playing against his lower ranked Vietnamese rival.
Tien Minh started his campaign in an entertaining manner as he played with precision and dominate the pace of rallies without facing any considerable opposition from his higher ranked Japanese rival.
Until the one-minute break in the opening set, Tien Minh showed impressive play and set up a remarkable lead of 11-6.
After the break, Sasaki lifted up his level of play and played positive badminton. He became quicker at net and managed to level the score at 12-12.
The score remained close until the concluding points when Tien Minh showed a wonderful precision and won the set with a tight score of 21-19.
In the second set, Tien Minh surprised the crowd with his sharp reflexes and impressive play in the court and took a wonderful lead until the mid-game interval.
After the break, the Vietnamese continued his elevated run in the semi-final clash and did not spare any chance for Sasaki to put up strong resistance. He bagged the second set with an incredible 21-11 score on the board.
The final result of this 38-minute semi-final encounter was 21-19 and 21-11.
In the title match, Tien Minh will take on China’s Chen Jin who outclassed Indonesia’s Simon Santoso in another semi-final battle.
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