Thailand Open 2012: Xiaolong Liu, Zihan Qiu cruise to second round of Men’s Doubles event
Men’s Doubles campaigners Xiaolong Liu-Zihan Qiu of China eased into the second round of the SCG Thailand Open after laying Thitipong Lapoe-Sudket Prapakamol to rest in the first round on June 7, 2012.
The top seed duo of tournament took 49 minutes in court to stamp their supremacy with winning total of 21-12, 20-22 and 21-7.
They played flawless badminton in opening and closing sections of the game and local shuttlers Thitipong-Sudket had to surrender despite of an admirable show of skills in the middle.
Now Xiaolong and Zihan will meet an unseeded Malaysian couple Teik Chai Gan-Soon Hock Ong for a quarter-final spot.
In their opening match, the Chinese set the ball rolling by clinching very first match point with a staggering knock.
They launched a brisk attack and gained four quick points to create pressure on the natives but lost focus in next couple of rallies which resulted in 11-10 score at the mid-game break.
After the interval, they built a middling total of 19-11 with an aggressive speed and this pragmatically constructed lead fetched vital match point for them.
However, they could not proceed to tenaciously defend their hard work and frittered away this early advantage in following game.
Meanwhile, the Thai shuttlers showed a transformed character and struck the right balance in second set.
They remained at the lower end all the way to game point situation but stunned higher ranked challengers with a lustrous performance in final moments.
In first half, Xiaolong and Zihan relished full benefits of their dominance in previous set and cornered the opposing team with a 11-6 margin on the board.
Later part of the game saw the suppressed duo Thitipong-Sudket storming back with a strong reply. They equalled the score at 17 and then gained a slight edge in 19-17.
This nerve-racking tussle got resolved with a tight yet decisive figure of 22-20 and both teams geared up for third and final set.
The decider was completely dominated by Chinese as they provided their competitors meagre opportunities to proceed and concluded the show in an impressive fashion.
Xiaolong and Zihan ended first half with 11-3 and then sealed victory with a distinguish margin of 21-7.
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