US Open Grand Prix Gold: Nicole Grether tames Priscilla Lun at Women’s Singles first round
Canada’s budding player Nicole Grether delivered a phenomenal performance in Women’s Singles first round showdown when she easily tamed her local rival Priscilla Lun at the OCBC US Open Grand Prix Gold on Tuesday, July 3, in Los Angeles.
Canadian lady, who has been struggling hard to establish a commendable position at international stage for the last couple of years, put up staggering show of flawless badminton and sent Lun packing in just 20 minutes.
Right from starting points, Grether occupied the driving seat and made Lun work extra hard to return the well placed strokes in all areas of court and easily ended up the battle in straight games with a comprehensive score on the board.
In the meanwhile, Lun failed to match the speed of rallies and also conceded many points by hitting the bird long of court or into the net. She failed to cheer her home fans and crashed out in second round without creating a strong impact.
In the first game, Lun displayed a wonderful performance in opening rallies by executing powerful strokes in all areas but failed to dominate her gritty opponent who was also in full swing.
The score was 3-3 when Grether took over the control and started to push Lun on the back-foot. Her impressive smashes on side lines coupled with spinning net shots spared no chance for her local rival to bridge the gap on the score board.
The Canadian proved too strong for Lun in opening half of first game as she set up a comfortable lead of 11-7.
After the break, Lun tried her best to cope up with the pace rallies but failed to place her strokes in right areas and.
Grether, on the other hand, was calm and collected in the court and she easily took the first game with a wonderful margin of 21-11.
In the following game, Lun accelerated her speed and manipulated all loopholes of her rival in opening rallies but again lost her control. She started to concede points by executing hasty shots which helped Grether to establish a comfortable 11-5 lead on the board.
After the one-minute interval, Lun put in extra effort by executing powerful pushes and down the line smashes but failed to take any advantage against her much stronger opponent.
In the meanwhile, Grether continued her smooth ride against Lun without facing any uncharacteristic problem throughout the second game and bagged it with a stunning margin of 21-8.
Grether gave a severe treatment to Lun in straight games with a humiliating 21-11 and 21-8 margin on the score board.
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