Vladimir Malkov and Stanislav Pukhov surge into quarter-final of the Russian Open Grand Prix 2011
Russia’s Vladimir Malkov and Stanislav Pukhov reserved their place in the Men’s Singles quarter-final after winning their round-of-16 contests at the Russian Open Grand Prix 2011, in Russia, on June 30, 2011.
The World Number 71, Malkov, defeated compatriot Denis Grachev in straight games, whereas, Pukhov, who is World Number 56, crushed Yuhan Tan of Belgium in similar fashion.
Malkov opened the game against Denis in a thrilling manner, as he employed powerful smashes in the early points of the opening set. Denis failed to return his opponent’s powerful smashes effectively and was trailing behind his experienced team-mate at 7-11.
After the interval, Malkov extended his lead by keeping the pace of the game quite high. His perfect play at the net and the semi-smashes on the forehand side of his rival earned him a considerable advantage in the game. Malkov grabbed the opening game in
just 17 minutes, by a margin of 21-13.
The second game was almost identical to the previous set, where Malkov established a good lead in the starting points of the game. Denis tried to become fast to match the speed of the rallies, but he lost his balance and made many unforced mistakes, which
helped Malkov in winning the set by a 21-13 margin, in just 15 minutes. The score of this straight-set contest of 32 minutes was 21-13 and 21-13.
In another round-of-16 match, Stanislav Pukhov managed to win against a spirited Yuhan, who made the seventh seed work hard for attaining success. Pukhov had to dig deep into his reserves and bring out some fascinating strokes to win over the Belgian.
In the first game, both players put up a close fight until the second-half of the game, where the Russian played better badminton and managed to win the set by a tight difference of 21-19, in 17 minutes.
The second set was also a close battle between the two aggressive shuttlers, who were playing at their maximum speed. However, Pukhov again controlled the game at the concluding phase and won it by a 21-18 difference, in just 15 minutes. The 34-minute two-set
battle ended with a 21-19 and 21-18 margin.
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