Wong Choong Hann and Sho Sasaki move into quarter-final of Australian Open Grand Prix Gold 2011
Malaysia’s Wong Choong Hann and Japan’s Sho Sasaki have booked their place in the Men’s Singles quarter-final after beating their opponents in the round-of-16 of the Australian Open Grand Prix Gold 2011 at Melbourne, Australia on 7 April.
The number eight seed Choong Hann defeated the 14th seed Mathieu Lo Ying Ping of France in three sets, whereas his compatriot and 10th seed Muhammad Hafiz Hashim lost to sixth seed Sasaki in straight sets.
Choong Hann opened the game in a timid way, as he failed to control the pace of the game. In the first part of the opening set, Ying Ping dominated the game and took a comfortable lead of 11-5. After the one-minute break, the Malaysian tried to fight back in the set but the French player was performing at his best. Ying Ping spared no opportunity for the opponent to score points and won the first set by a wonderful margin of 21-13, in just 17 minutes.
In the following set, Choong Hann managed to keep the pace very high and established a reasonable lead of 11-8 in the opening part of the set. After the 60-second break, the Malaysian maintained the lead and won the second game with a 21-18 margin in 22 minutes. The eighth seed continued his winning performance in the third set and won it with a comfortable margin of 21-14 in just 18 minutes. The concluding score of the 57-minute match was 13-21, 21-18 and 21-14.
In another match of the Men’s Singles, Sasaki showed no mercy to Hafiz Hashim and won the match in a convincing manner. In the opening set, the Malaysian worked hard and remained close to the opponent, but the Japanese played a positive game in the end and won the first set by a 21-17 margin in 21 minutes. In the second set, Sasaki played impressive game against the 10th seed and finished it up with a one-sided margin of 21-11, in just 15 minutes. The final score of the 35-minute long match was 21-17 and 21-11.
In the quarter-final, Choong Hann will meet Takuma Ueda of Japan, whereas Sasaki will take on either Yi Lu of China or Tien Minh Nguyen of Vietnam.
Tags: