Stephanie Lam reserves spot in Girl’s Singles quarter-finals of Pan Am Junior Championships
The spirited female shuttler Stephanie Lam thrashed high ranked Kyleigh O`Donoghue to secure a berth in quarter-finals of Under-17 Girl’s Singles category in XXI Pan Am Junior Championships on July 25, 2012.
Both contenders consumed their energies for 42 minutes to read final result of 19-21, 21-15 and 21-19.
Stephanie showed strong character despite slipping down in the opening game and earned the honour to be in top eight shuttlers by claiming the ending two match points.
Meanwhile, the local shuttler disappointed her supporters by crashing out of the home event with 1-2 defeat at Sherwood Park in Alberta, Canada.
Kyleigh, who was second seeded player in this tournament, aroused hopes by surviving a nerve-racking first set.
She played positive badminton and established a comfortable lead of four points in 5-1 total. She stepped forward at steady pace and her challenger could not catch her until mid-game break.
The US campaigner made every effort to tip the scale in her favour but she could not hit the mark and trailed behind until 8-11.
However, Stephanie picked up the pace and made a swift progress after one-minute interval. She chased her rival all the way to game point situation but could not stop Kyleigh from putting a winning score of 21-19.
Next game completely changed the scenario as Stephanie played with great conviction and turned her opponent’s plan of a straight-set victory into dust.
This time, she did not repeat previous mistake and controlled overall pace of the rallies from the beginning. She set herself in motion with five uninterrupted points and then doubled the impact with 7-2 total.
Though, the Canadian shuttler narrowed the gap with 7-6 but she failed to continue with same tempo and lost the first half 8-11.
On the other hand, Stephanie relished full benefits of this situation and bagged crucial match point with significant figure of 21-15.
The decider proved best part of the battle as both shuttlers snapped at each other’s heels all the way to final moments.
They remained close until 18-17 but then the US shuttler locked the honour with a staggering knock of 21-19.
Now Stephanie is scheduled to meet Daniela Macias in quarter-final round of the tournament.
Tags: