Rachael Darragh outplays Sonia Goncalves in Women’s Singles U19 semi-final at Irish U19 Open 2012
Rachael Darragh, a budding player from Ireland, stole the limelight by reaching into Women’s Singles U19 final after putting up amazing show of top quality badminton against the higher ranked Sonia Goncalves of Portugal at the Irish U19 Open 2012 in Ireland,
on Saturday, September 8.
The un-seeded Sonia, who remained impressive in her aggressive and positive play in all of her encounters in the tournament, continued her roller-coaster run and overpowered her higher ranked Portuguese rival in an authoritative manner.
The lower ranked Rachael played with precision on court as she did not lose her focus at any stage and remained successful in throwing out Sonia in straight sets with a reasonable margin by consuming just 28 minutes on court.
The third seeded Sonia, on the other hand, failed to stretch her aggressive and positive run while playing against her talented opponent and eventually lost the contest in two sets without snatching any game.
The opening game started in a thrilling fashion when both shuttlers played with control and aggression and progressed while remaining neck-to-neck at the initial rallies.
They continued showing their impressive skills to the local crowd and remained close on score board until the mid-game interval.
After the one-minute break, Rachael played tremendous badminton and did not let her rival prevail on court. She managed a reasonable gap and remained successful in taking the opening game with a tight margin of 21-19.
In the second game of this amazing fight, Rachael played with spectacular precision and registered her supremacy on court from the opening half.
The in-form Irish showed a remarkable control in her powerful shots and maintained pressure on her rival which helped her to set up a superb lead until the end of opening half.
After the mid-game interval, Rachael continued punishing her higher ranked challenger by playing aggressive and controlled badminton and remained successful in winning the second set in a tremendous fashion with a 21-17 score on the board.
The incredible Rachael advanced into the final after showing exit to Sonia by beating her with an overall margin of 21-19 and 21-17.
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