Simon Santoso narrowly beats Chen Yuekun in round-of-16 clash at Indonesia Open Grand Prix Gold
Indonesia’s ace player Simon Santoso reached into Men’s Singles quarter-final after narrowly defeating China’s Chen Yuekun in round-of-16 contest at the Indonesia Open Grand Prix Gold Badminton 2012 in Indonesia, on Thursday, September 27.
The in-form Santoso, who is World Number Five and top seed in Men’s Singles draw of the tournament, had to employ all of his reserves to overpower his young and passionate Chinese opponent in a nail-biting contest.
Santoso struggled hard in the opening game of the contest and lost it. However, he powered back into the match and took the following games to end up the contest in three games with a decent margin on score board.
On the other hand, the 16th seeded Yuekun made his presence strongly felt to the world as he played with remarkable speed and precision and snatched the opening game from his top seeded local opponent.
Nevertheless, Chinese shuttler could not stretch his dominating run in the following games and eventually lost the match with a respectable score.
In the first game, Santoso tried to dominate the pace of rallies but he was shocked with the impressive speed of his Chinese opponent and remained struggling to get advantage on score board until the interval.
After the break, Yuekun continued his inspiring run without taking any pressure from his Indonesian challenger.
Santoso failed to control the pace in the ending points of opening game and lost it with a close margin of 21-23.
However, the second game was different one as Santoso played with precision and kept his rival away from net. He managed a small lead until the one-minute break.
After the mid-game interval, Santoso extended his lead by putting variations in his shots and won the set with a 21-12 score on the board.
The higher ranked Indonesian player did not let his challenger to put up strong show in the deciding game and eventually won the game with a comfortable margin of 21-14.
Santoso sent Yuekun packing in a decent manner by finishing off the pre-quarter-final battle in three games by a reasonable 21-23, 21-12 and 21-14 score on the board.
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