Sho Sasaki crushes Nguyen Tien Minh to lift Men’s Singles title at the 2011 US Open Grand Prix Gold
Japan’s top seed, Sho Sasaki won the Men’s Singles title after crushing Vietnam’s Nguyen Tien Minh in the final of the 2011 US Open Grand Prix Gold, in Orange, USA, on Saturday, July 16.
World Number 15, Sasaki, who has been playing tremendous badminton for the last six months, continued his superb run in the US Open. He took a court time of 47 minutes and defeated World Number Nine and third seed of the tournament, Tien Minh, without facing
any strong resistance from his opponent.
Sasaki, who is famous for his fighting spirit and hard work, entertained the local crowd by displaying his superb skills. He remained quite composed against the spirited Tien Minh, who is known for his attacking play. The defence of the Japanese was too
strong for Tien Minh, who failed to secure points from his powerful smashes.
Right from the opening points of the match, Sasaki maintained a firm grip on the pace of the bird and controlled it by moving fast in all corners of the court. His shot selection and placement was quite perfect, as he made no mistakes in throwing the bird
away from the court or hitting his strokes into the net.
Tien Minh was struggling hard to dominate the game as his challenger was controlling the rallies with superb perfection. Sasaki won the opening game by playing high-class badminton with the score of 21-17, in 22 minutes.
The second game was tighter as compared to the previous one, where both shuttlers remained close by playing at the same speed. The score also was tied until the second game entered into the final half, where both shuttlers were playing at their maximum speed.
Sasaki started to play more net strokes, followed by jump smashes to put his rival in a defensive position. He was successful in pushing his opponent on the back foot, which earned him a good position in the game and eventually helped him win the encounter
by a margin of 21-18, in 25 minutes. The ending result of this 47-minute straight-set final was 21-17 and 21-18.
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