Swedish International Stockholm: Ville Lang stretches his winning streak to surge into quarter-final
Finland’s Ville Lang, who is in his prime form, has surged into Men’s Singles quarter-final after beating Denmark’s Flemming Quach in his pre-quarter-final match at the Swedish International Stockholm 2012 in Sweden, on Friday, January 20.
The World Number 40 Lang, who is the fifth seed in Men’s Singles draw of the tournament, had to play at his best to beat Quach, who participated in the tournament as a qualifier.
The higher ranked Finnish managed to win the match in three games by working extra hard for 51 minutes. On the other hand, Quach played terrific game but remained unlucky to win the battle as he failed to play well in final set and lost the match.
In the first game, Lang did not face any trouble in taking a reasonable lead in the opening half. He played dominating game by keeping the pace at highest level. Until the 60-second interval, the Finnish remained ahead of his rival at 11-5.
After the break, Quach became fast as he took the bird quite early and started to reduce the difference. He continued his better play in the whole game and reached at 18-20, when his higher ranked opponent scored the last point and took the set with a score
of 21-18.
In the following set, Lang again proved his supremacy over his lower ranked Danish opponent and remained ahead in opening half by reaching at 11-7.
However, Quach did not give up as he continued his hard work until the ending points of the second game.
The higher ranked Lang was leading the game with a 19-15 margin when his rival showed stunning performance and scored six points in a row. The higher ranked Lang lost the set with a margin of 19-21.
Shocked by the unexpected loss of second game, Lang played positive badminton in the final set. He was focused but his rival was also playing at the similar level. The score was 9-9 when Lang managed a small lead of 11-9 until the break.
After the interval, the higher ranked Finnish shuttler played with precision and also injected more power in his shots. He stretched his lead and remained successful in taking the final set with a good margin of 21-14.
The overall result of this 51-minute rubber-game clash was 21-18, 19-21 and 21-14.
In the quarter-final encounter, Lang will take on another Danish shuttler, Viktor Axelsen, who won his round-of-16 battle against Germany’s Dieter Domke.
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