Swedish International Stockholm: Thomas Rouxel ousts Nikolai Ukk in Men’s Singles qualifying round
France’s Thomas Rouxel has stamped his supremacy over Russia’s Nikolai Ukk in the Men’s Singles qualifying round and has advanced into main round of the Swedish International Stockholm 2012, on Thursday, January 19, in Sweden.
Rouxel has been playing tremendous badminton in all matches of qualifying round and also continued his impressive performance against the Russian opponent.
The French shuttler ended the match against Ukk in a remarkable manner and ousted him without facing any problem.
The Russian could not match the standard of his French opponent in the entire match and lost it in straight games in just 30 minutes.
Rouxel was impressive on court as he did not drop even a single game and reached in the Men’s Singles main round of the tournament.
Ukk played fast badminton in the starting rallies but lost his focus and control over the pace of game. On the other hand, Rouxel did not make any mistake in setting up an impressive lead in the opening half.
Rouxel judged the game of his rival at the early stage and played accordingly. He remained ahead of Ukk until the one-minute interval by reaching 11-7.
After the break, Rouxel stretched his lead by playing planned and positive badminton. He did not let his rival to dictate the pace of rallies at any stage of the game. He ended the first set with an incredible difference of 21-11.
In the following set of this contest, Ukk played stunning badminton as he did not make any mistake and managed to set up a comfortable lead of 10-5.
However, Rouxel elevated his play by accelerating his speed in all areas of the court and scored five consecutive points to level the score at 10-10.
At this stage, both shuttlers played competitive game and progressed closely until the score reached at 14-14.
However, Rouxel managed to take a reasonable lead and bagged the set with a margin of 21-18. The overall result of this qualifying-round battle was 21-11 and 21-18.
In the main round, Rouxel will be up against the higher ranked Raul Must, who is the top seed in Estonia.
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