Niccolo Tagle, Rayna Phillips rise in Mixed Doubles challenge of North Harbour Closed Championships
Mixed Doubles team Niccolo Tagle-Rayna Phillips employed unbeatable tactics and stamped Paul Thomson-Debbie Barclay in North Harbour Closed Championships on August 13, 2012.
This epic tussle was staged at Auckland in New Zealand and both teams sweat hard for three sets to read final result of 21-13, 13-21 and 21-13.
The champs put an inconsistent performance but still they managed to end this battle in a favourable manner.
On the other hand, the opposing team’s magic could not prevail and they knelt down in opening and closing segments of the encounter.
Niccolo and Rayna made their intentions clear straight away in very first game as they ended this set with a significant lead of eight points.
They set the foundation of their supremacy by dictating their rivals in couple of opening rallies and then strengthened their grip by grabbing few consecutive points.
They did not lose focus at ant any stage in first half and placed a respectable total of 11 before the one-minute interval.
They doubled the impact immediately after the break as the opposing team blundered in couple of nonstop rallies. They capitalised their dominating position and bagged vital match point with a staggering knock of 21-13.
However, things were entirely different for Niccolo and Rayna in second set as their competitors proved to be a tough nut to crack and pushed them into the dark with a dazzling performance.
The twosome of Paul and Debbie did not show any sign of bewilderment even after a severe blow of the first set and played flawless badminton to ensure their presence in the contest.
They kick-started their campaign by adding some valuable points in their total and kept making swift progress on points table.
Though, later part of the game saw them making some unforced errors which allowed their challengers to narrow the gap but Paul-Debbie regained their status by prevailing in couple of nonstop rallies.
They levelled the match score with 21-13 and setup a nerve-racking decider which opened with some gruelling effort from both contenders.
They remained locked in an edgy battle in the first half but it was a one-sided affair after the interval as Niccolo-Rayna sealed a splendid victory with a convincing figure of 21-13.
Tags: