Sarkis Agopyan beats Marian Smrek to secure his berth in Men’s Singles main round at Slovakia Open
Bulgaria’s Sarkis Agopyan remained successful in securing his place in Men’s Singles main round after defeating his local challenger Marian Smrek in qualifying round clash at the Victor Slovak Open 2012 in Slovakia, on Thursday, September 6.
The second seeded Bulgarian player, who showed a consistent performance in Men’s Singles qualifying round matches, worked really hard to overpower his Slovak opponent in a hard fought battle that took 40 minutes of hard labour from both sides.
The higher ranked Sarkis was in good form in the opening game but he badly failed in the following set. Nevertheless, he found his rhythm back in the final set and outplayed his rival in rubber games.
In the meanwhile, the un-seeded Marian played good badminton especially in the second set when he thrashed his rival in a dominating fashion. However, he failed to prove his worth in the deciding set and crashed out in the last qualifying round contest.
The passionate Bulgarian shuttler was in commanding position in the opening set of the contest as he played with tremendous speed and managed a striking lead on score board until the mid-game interval.
After the 60-second break, Sarkis continued his dominating show without showing mercy to his local opponent and managed to grab the game with a 21-15 score on the board.
Supported by the huge home crowd, Marian lifted up his level of play and remained miles ahead until the end of opening half.
After the mid-game interval, Sarkis tried his level best to shake the confidence of his opponent by playing attacking badminton but failed to maintain his focus and lost the game with a humiliating difference of 8-21.
Nevertheless, Sarkis showed his class in the deciding game when he set up a staggering lead on the board until the end opening half.
After the interval, Sarkis remained confident in his attacking play as he did not miss any chance to stretch his lead and took the final game with a one-sided margin of 21-11.
The in-form Sarkis managed to win this contest in rubber games with staggering 21-15, 8-21 and 21-11 margin on the score board.
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