Taufik Hidayat ousts Daren Liew in first round of the Singapore Open Super Series
World Number Three shuttler, Indonesian Taufik Hidayat, was lucky in winning the Men’s Singles first-round match against Malaysia’s Daren Liew, in the Singapore Open Super Series 2011. The match was held in Singapore, on June 15, 2011.
The Indonesian, who is the top seed in the event, had to struggle for 65 minutes to beat Daren in a rubber-set fight.
Taufik started the first game in a relaxed manner, which helped Daren to find his momentum. Both shuttlers were playing at the same speed in the opening set of the first round and the score also progressed closely.
The players entered into the second part of the opening set by remaining close to each other. The score reached 20-20, when Taufik tried hard to finish up the game, but failed as the spirited Malaysian worked really well and clinched the opening set by a
24-22 margin, in 24 minutes.
Stung by the loss of the opening game, Taufik made a firing comeback in the second game. He kept the pace extremely high and controlled the rallies throughout the set. Daren failed to find any gap in the court of his opponent and failed to produce impressive
strokes in this set.
At the interval of the second game, Taufik was clearly leading the game by an 11-5 difference. After taking a one-minute break, the Indonesian continued dominating the set. He made the Malaysian work hard to return the bird from all corners of the court.
Daren struggled to pick the shuttle early from the rear court, as Taufik was hitting parallel strokes. He showed no mercy to his rival in the second game and finished it by an impressive margin of 21-12, in just 17 minutes.
The start of the third game was superb for the Malaysian, who took a five-point lead by reaching 7-2 in a flash. Taufik geared up his speed to narrow the gap and reached at 8-11 in the first-half of the deciding game.
After exchanging the court, Daren extended his lead by playing superb badminton and reached 13-8. Taufik changed his strategy and became quicker at the net, which worked well for him as he levelled the score at 15-15. The points were tied until 18-18, when
the top seed scored three consecutive points and clinched the set by 21-18 difference, in 23 minutes.
The 65-minute epic battle ended in Taufik’s favour, with a 22-24, 21-12 and 21-18 score on the board.
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