Singapore Open 2013: Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir find a fabulous start – Badminton news
Indonesia’s best Mixed Doubles players, Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir, started their run in a tremendous fashion as they easily tamed India’s Tarun Kona and Ashwini Ponnappa in first round of Singapore Open 2013 on Wednesday, June 19, in Singapore.
The World Number Three Tontowi and Liliyana, who are the third seeds in this Super Series tournament, found a good draw as they found an easy match against the lower ranked Indian opponents and eased into the next round.
Tontowi and Liliyana were quite comfortable in their dominating play. They stayed on driving seat all the way and easily overpowered their Indian challengers in straight games with a stunning margin of 21-6 and 21-10.
On the contrary, the un-seeded Tarun and Ashwini were in all sorts of trouble as they could not find any way out to get a reasonable total. They failed to create even a little problem for their higher ranked opponents and went down in just 18 minutes with
a humiliating margin.
It was just a match practice for Tontowi and Liliyana who got a wonderful start by playing attacking and controlled badminton. They were in complete command and set up a smashing lead at the early stage.
The coordination between the Indonesian duo was incredible and it helped them to stay on the driving seat. They pushed Tarun and Ashwini on back foot by dominating the game at net and took a huge lead until the break.
The Indonesian shuttlers continued crushing their Indian opponent after the one-minute break. They won many points by killing bird at net and took the first game by a stunning total of 21-6.
The following game was not different from the previous one as Tontowi and Liliyana were again in dictating position. They set up the tempo of rallies at the highest level and took a comfortable lead until the end of first half.
After the break, the experienced Tontowi and Liliyana sailed in an uninterrupted fashion and bagged the second set easily by putting up 21-10 score on the board. With this victory, the Indonesian shuttlers advanced into the round-of-16 stage.
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