Nozomi Okuhara ousts Shizuka Uchida to land a title berth at Canada Open Grand Prix 2012
Japan’s in-form female shuttler Nozomi Okuhara delivered a fabulous performance as she landed a title berth after crushing her compatriot Shizuka Uchida in Women’s Singles quarter-final at the Yonex Canada Open Grand Prix 2012 on Saturday, July 14, in Canada.
Nozomi, who has been delivering a spectacular performance in all of her fights in the tournament, continued putting up sensational show in semi-final battle and overpowered her team-mate in a commanding fashion.
The in-form Nozomi was playing at her best as she showed no mercy to her country-mate and finished off the clash in straight sets with a huge margin by consuming just 35 minutes on court.
In the meanwhile, Shizuka also failed to continue her giant killing run in semi-final contest when she faced her experienced team-mate and lost to her in two sets without showing her brilliance.
In the first game, Nozomi kept an upper hand over her rival from the initial stage by keeping the pace of rallies at the highest level and managed an early lead.
Nozomi remained impressive on court as she did not miss any chance to maintain pressure on her challenger and took an impressive lead of 11-5 until the mid-game interval.
After the one-minute break, Nozomi showed her class by maintaining her speed on court as she was in tremendous form by taking the bird early from all areas and pushed her rival on back foot with her powerful attacking shots.
The in-form Nozomi remained calm and composed in her temperament and eventually took the set with a one-sided score of 21-10.
In the second game, Shizuka also played fast and positive badminton and did not let her rival to set up an early lead this time.
Nozomi, on the other hand, could not take any advantage of her powerful shots this time as the defence of her opponent grew stronger.
The score reached at 9-9 when Nozomi played a few impressive strokes in gaps and managed to take a reasonable lead of 11-9 until the break.
After the interval, Nozomi continued putting up superb performance and eventually wrapped up the game with a 21-15 score on the board.
The impressive Nozomi emerged victorious against her young country-mate with a superb margin of 21-10 and 21-15.
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