Taufik Hidayat demolishes Ivan Sozonov in Men’s Singles second round at Macau Open Badminton GP Gold
Indonesia’s experienced shuttler Taufik Hidayat showed his strength in the arena and surged into Men’s Singles round-of-16 after showing exit to Russia’s Ivan Sozonov in second round fight at Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton GP Gold 2012 on Wednesday, November
28, in Macau.
The former Olympic Champion Taufik, who is currently World Number 13 and third seed in the tournament, had to work hard in the arena and managed to win the battle while taking the court time for 33 minutes.
Indonesian shuttler had to dig into his arsenal in the opening game and won it narrowly. However, he proved his supremacy in the arena by playing wonderful badminton in the following set and managed to win it with a stunning margin to stamp his mark over
the Russian shuttler in a decent fashion.
On the other hand, the lower ranked Sozonov put up a spirited display of his aggressive skills but failed to maintain his focus when it mattered most and eventually went down against Taufik without winning any set.
In the first set, the experienced Taufik showed stayed calm and composed in the arena and did not let his rival to take charge of rallies at the early stage.
In the meanwhile, the in-form Sozonov also played attacking badminton and stayed close to his Indonesian challenger until the end of opening half.
After the one-minute break, the battle proceeded in the similar thrilling fashion as both players remained neck-to-neck until the ending points.
At this stage, Taufik played with precision and did not commit any mistake which helped him to score remaining points and he won the set with a tight 22-20 total on the board.
In the second game, the lofty Taufik took over the charge of rallies by playing positive and controlled badminton which helped him to set up a huge lead until the end of first half.
After the break, Taufik continued his dominating performance in the arena and remained successful in winning the second game with a stunning 21-13 score on the board.
The impressive Taufik managed to register a straight-set victory over Sozonov in this Men’s Singles second round battle with a margin of 22-20 and 21-13.
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