Tony Gunawan, Vita Marissa win semi-final berth in US Open GP Gold 2012
Mixed Doubles campaigners Tony Gunawan-Vita Marissa gained access to the semi-finals of Yonex OCBC US Open GPG after overwhelming Hiroyuki Endo-Ayaka Takahashi on July 5, 2012.
This quarter-final tussle kept both contenders on court for 31 minutes before ending with final figures of 21-17 and 21-17.
Though, this encounter was concluded in just two games but still the crowd was entertained with top quality badminton.
The lower ranked Japanese duo performed exceedingly well and held their heads high despite facing a straight-set defeat.
In the first set of the match, Hiroyuki and Ayaka strived hard to catch their rivals but they could not hit the mark all the way to final stage.
Tony Gunawan and Vita Marissa, who belong to USA and Indonesia respectively, made the difference when they gathered five valuable points straight away in the beginning.
They controlled the overall pace of the rallies and raised their total to 9-4 before ending the first half with an indomitable figure of 11-6.
After one-minute break, they did not lose this tempo and strengthened their grip over the game with an unstoppable attack.
The twosome of Hiroyuki-Ayaka made every effort to narrow the gap but they could not match their competitors’ speed on the court.
They prevailed in a couple of rallies in a row and reached at fighting position of 16-18 but then the opposing team bagged ending three points with great ease.
Tony and Vita finished opening set with a striking margin of 21-17 and established some psychological supremacy before the crucial game of the match.
However, they had to face strong resistance from their challengers in the second set as they remained at the lower end in first five rallies.
The Japanese pair showed some spark by registering 5-2 total in no time but they lost that touch and allowed the opposing team to bounce back.
Mixed Doubles partners Tony Gunawan and Vita Marissa manipulated every loophole and managed to put respectable figure of 11-8 before the mid-game break.
After the interval, Hiroyuki and Ayaka prevailed in the third quarter of the set and levelled the score 17-17. However, they had to surrender when Tony-Vita pocketed last four points of 21-17 margin.
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