Tien Minh Nguyen beats Daren Liew in Men’s Singles round-of-16 at Yonex Japan Open 2012
Tien Minh Nguyen, the most seasoned player in the history of Vietnam, found his way to secure a berth in Men’s Singles quarter-final after defeating Malaysia’s Daren Liew in round-of-16 clash at the Yonex Japan Open 2012 at Tokyo, Japan, on Thursday, September
20.
The World Number 14 Tien Minh, who is eighth seed in Japan Open, has been struggling hard to get back into top-10 slot in the world for the last few months and has got a chance to elevate his ranking as he has reached in the quarter-final.
However, Tien Minh had to work really hard in pre-quarter-final battle against the World Number 27 Daren and he managed to finish off the match in hard-fought rubber sets by taking 72 minutes on court.
The lower ranked Malaysian shuttler, in the meanwhile, played to his maximum potential and troubled his Vietnamese challenger throughout the battle but failed to prove his worth in deciding game and crashed out by losing the match with a respectable margin.
Daren played impressive badminton in opening set of the match and also remained ahead on score board until the break. He was in wonderful rhythm and showed a great speed in taking the bird from all corners.
After the mid-game interval, Tien Minh changed his strategy and worked really well at net which helped him to create opportunities of earning points and he took the game with a 21-14 score on the board.
The second game was absolutely thrilling when both contestants put in their maximum effort and progressed closely until the break.
After the interval, Tien Minh tried to take lead but failed to create pressure on his rival and eventually lost the set with a 21-23 score on the board.
Daren dominated the pace of rallies in the deciding game of this entertaining battle and he managed a wonderful lead of 11-6 until the one-minute break.
The Malaysian was leading the game with an impressive 14-7 margin when he lost his focus as his rival became aggressive in all areas of the court.
Tien Minh changed his strategy and started to hit the bird low to keep his rival on back foot. His strategy worked really well and managed to level the score at 14-14.
The eighth seeded Tien Minh remained in complete control of rallies in the concluding half of final set. He did not let Daren to put up strong resistance and eventually won the game with a 21-16 margin on the score board.
Tien Minh remained successful in winning this epic battle by coming from behind in the final set and eventually showed exit to Daren in three games with a nail-biting difference of 21-14, 21-23 and 21-16.
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