Susan Egelstaff advances into the semi-final of the Austrian International Challenge 2011
The Scottish female badminton player, Susan Egelstaff, advances into the semi-final of the Austrian International Challenge 2011 after beating the Japanese shuttler, Masayo Nojirino, in their quarterfinal match yesterday in Vienna, Austria. Susan, the number
two seed of the event, will be facing Nozomi Okuhara, another Japanese shuttler who started the event as a qualifier and stunned everybody when she defeated the number four seed of the event, Juan Gu of Singapore in straight games with a huge difference. The
other semi-final match will be an all Japan affair where Sayaka Takahashi will be facing her compatriot Mayu Sekiya.
The Scottish player was very impressive throughout the event as she didn’t lose even a single set to any other player. She finished all of her matches in straight sets and the same happened in the quarterfinal match, where she defeated the Japanese Masayo
Nojirino in straight sets. The quarterfinal match was a close fight as both of the players remained close without taking any clear lead until the ending moments of the game, where the Scot played smartly and won the set by 21-18.
The second and final set was even closer as the Nojirino matched the speed and tactics of her opponent on each play. The score remained quite close throughout the set and reached an even 20-20. Again it was Susan who employed her experience and scored the
remaining two points in a row by manipulating the chinks in her Japanese opponents armour. She won the game by the tight margin of 22-20 score. The quarterfinal took 39 minutes to prove the supremacy of the Scottish number one Susan Egelstaff.
In the other quarterfinal matches, both the Japanese women won their matches and advanced into the semi-final to make it an all Japan match. At first, Sayaka Takahashi of Japan defeated the Hung Yung Chan of Hong Kong in a straight set match. She took just
21 minutes on the court to crush her opponent with a huge margin of 21-6, 21-9. The other quarterfinal match was between Mayu Sekiya of Japan and Josephine Wentholt of Netherlands. The Japanese girl played superbly and won the quarterfinal in straight sets
in a 36 minutes fight with a 22-20, 21-10 score on the board.
In the upper half of the draw, both of the Japanese players, Sayaka Takahashi and Mayu Sekiya will be competing to meet the winner of Susan Egelstaff and Nozomi Okuhara in the final of the Austrian International Challenge 2011. The Scottish shuttler has
a great chance to win the title as there is no top seed left in the competition which will give the second seed a considerable advantage to prove herself in the event.
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