Petr Koukal thrashes Misbun Ramdan in Men’s Singles second round of 2012 Korea Grand Prix Gold
Men’s Singles shuttler Petr Koukal of Czech Republic stretched his winning streak in the Korea Grand Prix Gold and moved forward to pre quarter-finals by beating Misbun Ramdan Mohmed Misbun on December 5, 2012.
This epic tussle prolonged to three exhausting sets and both contenders entertained the crowd while piling up decisive figures of 21-10, 24-26 and 21-17.
The Czech campaigner, who was underrated earlier in this event, proved his worth by prevailing in the opening and ending segments of the showdown.
On the other hand, young Malaysian campaigner could pocket only the second match point and bid farewell to this GP Gold tournament.
Petr Koukal laid foundation of his supremacy immediately in the beginning of first set and maintained an upper hand all the way to game point situation.
He pushed his competitor on the back foot by unleashing a series of power packed strokes and bagged many valuable points in no time.
He played with an authoritative approach in first half of the set and registered an indomitable total of 11.
This mountainous figure proved final blow for Misbun as he never came out of the deficit and surrendered after reading 10-21 score on the board.
However, he managed to save the honour to some extent by showing an elevated craft in very next game.
The young Malaysian shuttler matched his rival’s skills in all departments of the game and struck hard while hanging by thread to stay alive.
Though, Misbun looked bit confused in the establishing rallies as many of his strokes landed outside the court but then few productive rallies boosted his confidence.
He did not lose focus in second half of the set and levelled the match score with an impressive margin of 26-24.
With the end of this nerve-racking set, the decider turned into a survival of the fittest war as both contenders were looking to claim this final match point.
They remained equal on the points table until third quarter of the set but then Petr Koukal put an extra effort and locked the honour with 21-17 total.
Now he will test his skills against the Taipei shuttler Kuei Chun Shih in third round of Men’s Singles event.
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