Taufik Hidayat shows a little struggle in beating Pablo Abian in Group O fight at London Olympics
Indonesia’s legendary player Taufik Hidayat showed a little sluggishness while playing against Spain’s Pablo Abian but managed to win this last Men’s Singles battle of Group O at the 2012 London Olympics on Tuesday, July 31, in London.
The Athens Olympic Champion Taufik, who is World Number 12 and 11th seed in the draw of London Olympics, had to put in extra effort to chuck out his lower ranked Spanish opponent with a decent total on the board.
The higher ranked Taufik played a bit slow game in opening set which put him in trouble in the end but he somehow managed to take the set with a tight score.
However, it was a smooth ride for the Indonesian shuttler in the second game as he played in a commanding fashion and overpowered Abian easily.
On the other hand, Abian played superb badminton in opening set as he did not spare enough room to be manipulated by his experienced Indonesian opponent but he remained unlucky in the ending points and lost the opening game. He failed to play positive game
in the second set and lost the match in straight games.
After winning the match Taufik said, “I never play early mornings, I’m not an early morning person. My body is still adjusting. Because I play too early, it’s like I’m still sleeping.”
In the opening game of the match, both shuttlers remained close to each other as no one could take a clear lead in opening half.
Nevertheless, the Spanish shuttler was leading the board with an 11-9 score on the board until the break.
After the interval, Taufik geared up his speed and managed to reach at 19-17 when Abian scored three consecutive points to reach at 20-19.
At this stage, the Spanish shuttler remained unlucky as he sent a smash into the net letting Taufik to score the following points. The Indonesian ended up the set with a margin of 22-20.
In the second game, Taufik was everywhere on court as he played to his maximum potential and easily took the set with one-sided score of 21-11.
In the pre-quarter-final match, Taufik is set to meet Lin Dan of China who is the ruling Olympic Champion.
Tags: