Sayaka Sato to face Tai Tzu Ying in Women’s Singles final of the US Open GP Gold 2011
Japan’s Sayaka Sato is set to meet Chinese Taipei’s Tai Tzu Ying in the Women’s Singles final, as both shuttlers have won their semi-final matches at the US Open GP Gold 2011, in USA, on Friday, July 15. The Taipei shuttler crushed Eriko Hirose of Japan
in the semi-final, whereas, Sayaka defeated Inthanon Ratchanok of Thailand in the top-4 stage.
Sayaka, who is currently World Number 19, employed every skill she had to get rid of Thai shuttler, who is occupying the 14th position in the Women’s Singles world rankings. The Japanese took 50 minutes to end the entertaining fight, which lasted
for three-sets of quality badminton.
The eighth seed, Sayaka, started her campaign against the Thai shuttler in dominating fashion, as she took a good lead in the start. Her impressive smashes and perfect attacking clears made Inthanon struggle to pick the bird early. At the break in the first
game, Sayaka secured a good lead as she reached 11-6.
After the break, Inthanon geared up her speed but failed to place her strokes in the right areas. The Japanese built more pressure on her challenger and won the set by a 21-14 margin, in 17 minutes.
The second game was completely opposite to the first one, as Inthanon bounced back in the match by delivering a stunning performance. The Thai started the second set without slowing down the pace of the rallies. This disturbed the momentum of the Japanese
shuttler, who failed to play planned badminton and lost the second set by a 13-21 score, in 15 minutes.
Sayaka played a different game in the final set, where she changed her tactics and started to play with variation. Her deceptive strokes from the net disturbed the movement of Inthanon, who was guessing where the Japanese will place her shot.
The perfect control of the Japanese over the pace of the rallies earned her the final game with a 21-15 margin, in 18 minutes. This interesting semi-final battle ended in 50 minutes with a 21-14, 13-21 and 21-15 margin.
The Women’s Singles final in the US Open will be a tough fight between Sayaka and Tzu Ying, as both shuttler have showed tremendous form in the event.
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