Tontowi Ahmad, Liliyana Natsir pace path to pre quarter-final round – Macau Open Update
Mixed Doubles experts Tontowi Ahmad and Liliyana Natsir served notice of their class in the opening round of Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton Grand Prix Gold and surged into the pre quarter-finals on November 28, 2012.
World Number two pair outshined Vitalij Durkin-Nina Vislova of Russia with an impressive result of 21-18 and 21-8 in a 25-minute tussle.
Tontowi and Liliyana played cautiously in the beginning of first set but they injected intensity in their attack when it was needed and registered a straight-set win.
They looked bit off colour in the establishing rallies of the opening game as they dropped many valuable points and allowed the opposing team to gain an early advantage.
The twosome of Vitalij and Nina capitalised this situation and made swift progress to a respectable score position of 7-4.
Both Russian shuttlers did not show any sign of confusion in front of superior competitors and proved their worth in first half of the set.
They prevailed in couple of uninterrupted rallies and piled up a mountainous figure of 11 before the one-minute break.
However, they could not go with the same flow in the latter part of the game and frittered away their effort in the final moments.
The experienced partnership of Tontowi and Liliyana prevailed in remaining part of the game and claimed this valuable match point. At first, they levelled the score at 17-17 and then placed a winning margin of 21-18.
Next game turned into a dead contest as the Indonesian players did not give their competitors even a single counter-attack opportunity and smacked them with an emphatic knock.
In first half of the set, Tontowi and Liliyana mounted pressure by pocketing four points in a row and then magnified the impact by widening the gap with 7-2 margin.
They did not show any mercy in the next couple of rallies and registered an indomitable total of 11 before the interval.
After the mid-game break, they were everywhere on court as they bagged ten out of ending eleven points and swept the table with 21-8 score.
This win led them to the pre quarter-finals of this GP Gold event and their next challengers will be Tan Aik Quan-Lai Pei Jing.
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