Sung Hwan Park beats Sourabh Verma to surge into semi-final of the Thailand Open GP Gold
Korea’s Sung Hwan Park has overwhelmed India’s Sourabh Verma, in the Men’s Singles quarter-final of the Thailand Open GP Gold 2011, at Bangkok, Thailand.
The third seeded Park spent 62 minutes to beat the Indian in a rubber-set match played on Friday, June 10.
Sourabh played incredible badminton in the first-set where he remained successful in putting pressure on Park, who failed to break the flow of the spirited Indian. The Korean made many errors which assisted his opponent to build and maintain a wonderful lead in the entire first game.
Park, who is currently the World Number Eight, threw away many points by hitting the bird wide from the side lines of the court. He failed to produce positive shots against the talented Indian, who was not missing any chance of scoring points. The Korean lost the opening game in 20 minutes by a 16-21 difference.
In the second game, both shuttlers were equal until 6-6, when Park started to build a gap. Sourabh made some crucial mistakes, which helped the Korean to reach at 13-8. However, the Indian worked well and reduced the deficit with a comeback at 12-15.
The third seed was playing safely without targeting the side lines to avoid mistakes. He was hitting straight to the body smashes and strong pushes, which again earned him a five-point gap of 18-13. Park clinched the second game by a 21-16 score in 23 minutes.
The final game was absolutely thrilling, where the Indian was close to his senior opponent until the score reached 5-5. Park then managed to build a reasonable gap of 10-7 by playing some perfect spinning net strokes. At the interval, Park was leading the set by a difference of two points at 11-9.
In the second-half of the third set, Park played to his full potential and reached 17-11. Sourabh could not match the perfection of the experience Korean, who was missing no chance to score points. He finished the final set in an impressive fashion with a 21-11 score, in 19 minutes. The 62-minute fight concluded by a 16-21, 21-16 and 21-11 margin.
Park will be up against top seed, Chen Long of China, in the semi-final of the tournament.
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