Vladimir Ivanov, Ivan Sozonov reserve a spot in Men’s Doubles title match – Macau Open Update
Russia’s prime duo Vladimir Ivanov-Ivan Sozonov remained invincible in the Men’s Doubles semi-final round of Kumpoo Macau Open Badminton Grand Prix Gold and secured a title match berth on December 1, 2012.
They stamped Alvent Yulianto Chandra-Markis Kido of Indonesia in a 39-minute encounter which ended with a final result of 17-21, 21-10 and 21-19.
The Russian campaigners, who are top seeded in this tournament, showed great fighting spirit and locked the honour despite of going down in first set.
Vladimir and Ivan looked confused in the opening game as they dropped many valuable points straight away in the beginning and allowed their challengers to pile up a decent total of 5-1.
The Indonesian shuttlers did not squander this opportunity and doubled their lead with a mountainous figure of 11.
Alvent Yulianto and Markis Kido injected more intensity in their attack and confined the opposing team in the rear court. They unleashed a flurry of productive strokes and registered a respectable margin of 17-11.
This deficit proved too much for the Russian campaigners as they could not lift this burden and knelt down after reading 17-21 score on the board.
However, Vladimir and Ivan managed to end their bad patch in the very next game as they clinched second match point with a huge difference.
This time they played with the right attitude and fortitude to avoid a straight-set defeat as this aggressive approach yielded good result.
They established an unassailable lead with 6-2 margin and then relished full benefits of this psychological edge until decisive moments of the game.
Vladimir and Ivan mounted pressure with 11-5 score and then doubled the impact by registering 15-9 total.
They did not show any mercy in the final stage and won this crucial set with a significant figure of 21-10.
The decider turned into survival of the fittest war as both contenders were desperately looking to pocket this final match point.
They stood toe-to-toe until game point situation and finally this nerve-racking battle ended in favour of Vladimir-Ivan.
They placed a winning margin of 21-19 and setup a title match with Lee Sheng Mu-Tsai Chia Hsin of Chinese Taipei.
Tags: