Riichi Takeshita stuns Hsu Jen Hao in semi-finals of 2013 New Zealand Badminton Open
Japan’s underrated but talented campaigner Riichi Takeshita stretched his unbeatable run in the SKYCITY New Zealand Badminton Open and secured a berth in title match on Saturday, April 13, 2013.
He was up against stuns Hsu Jen Hao of Chinese Taipei and this encounter proved a real test of their physical and mental strength.
Both contenders remained head-to-head for 42 minutes and finished this short-lived but hard fought tussle with decisive figures of 23-21 and 21-7.
The young but spirited Japanese shuttler prevailed in both segments of showdown and locked the honour in a commendable manner.
On the other hand, second seeded Jen Hao could prevail only in the second set and crashed out of this Grand Prix tournament.
In the opening game, Riichi Takeshita amazed everyone with his splendid badminton craft and gained a decent advantage on the points table. He did not give his rival enough time to read his game and piled up a significant total in no time.
However, Jen Hao showed some spark and ruled the court in few consecutive rallies before the interval. He managed to stay close on the points table until the game point situation.
The game kept swinging between them all the way to final moments but then the Japanese player tipped the scale in his favour with 23-21 score.
In second set of match, both contenders were poles apart in terms of performance. Riichi Takeshita showed maturity in his craft whereas Jen Hao looked completely out of touch and his below par performance led him to a woeful exit.
Initially, the Taipei campaigner bagged some valuable points and it was felt that he will avoid a straight-set defeat but then a strong backlash of opposing shuttler turned his plans into dust.
The Japanese shuttler played flawless badminton and finished first half of the set with an overwhelming score of 11.
Riichi Takeshita did not squander his effort in the latter part of game and capitalised his lead in third quarter of the set.
He bagged most of the ending points and swept the table with an impressive result of 21-7. With this win, he setup his next clash with Xue Song in final round of New Zealand Badminton Open.
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