Takuma Ueda stuns Taufik Hidayat to make it to pre quarter-finals of 2012 Hong Kong Open
Japan’s Takuma Ueda proved his potential in the Yonex Sunrise Hong Kong Open as he outclassed veteran Men’s Singles expert Taufik Hidayat in the opening round on November 21, 2012.
This epic tussle remained in full swing for one hour and eleven minutes and both contenders challenged each other in all areas of the game while pilling up final figures of 19-21, 23-21 and 21-16.
The young Japanese shuttler showed great maturity in his craft and locked the honour despite of going down in the opening game.
Takuma Ueda employed all of his brilliance in the ending two games and ensured his presence in the pre quarter-finals where he will swing arms against the compatriot player Kenichi Tago.
He will utilise the valuable experience of first round where he overpowered former World and Olympic champion Taufik Hidayat.
However, it was not a smooth road to victory as he had to put an extra effort to exceed the Indonesian maestro.
Takuma was bit confused in first set as he put a fluctuated performance which ultimately resulted in his defeat.
He thundered in the first half of the set and blundered in later part of the game. This crucial set ended in Taufik’s favour with 21-19 score on the board.
The following game brought life back to the contest as the Japanese shuttler showed a transformed character and counter-balanced the situation.
This time Takuma did not repeat previous mistakes and maintained an upper hand in most part of the game.
He established an early lead with 7-3 total and then strengthened his grip by registering a decent margin of 11 before the interval.
After the mid-game break, Takuma lost his grip for short span of time but then reinstated his dominance with couple of uninterrupted points.
Though, Taufik Hidayat made every effort to seal a straight-set victory but he had to surrender after reading 23-21 score.
Third set became crucial with this progress and both contenders snapped at each other’s heels to pocket this final match point.
Finally, this nerve-racking tussle ended when Takuma Ueda stole the limelight with a lustrous performance of 21-16.
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