World Junior Championships: Zulfadli Zulkiffli beats Gerald Ong Soon Lee in the round-of-16
Malaysia’s emerging shuttler Zulfadli Zulkiffli continues his roller-coaster run in the event as he has booked a quarter-final berth after beating Gerald Ong Soon Lee of Singapore in the Men’s Singles round-of-16 in the World Junior Championships, in Chinese
Taipei, on Thursday, November 3.
Zulfadli, who is also Asian Junior Champion, seems in a good shape and is looking forward to win the title. In the pre-quarter-final battle, he showed no mercy to the Singaporean and finished up the match in straight games. Gerald failed to tackle the attacking
play of the Malaysian and lost the match in two games.
The Malaysian played to his maximum abilities in the first set and won it with a striking margin. In the following game, the Singaporean played better badminton and remained close until the final points of the set. However, it was Zulfadli who dominated
the game at the end and won the set to stamp his victory over his rival.
In the first set, the 18-year-old Zulfadli played a wonderful game as his shot selection and execution was incredibly impressive as he missed no chance to end the rallies in the whole first game. The wonderful performance of the Malaysian spared no chance
for the Singaporean to survive in the game. Zulfadli won it with a huge margin of 21-9.
In the second set of this Men’s Singles fight, Gerald elevated his level of play as he remained close to his higher ranked opponent. The score was equal in the concluding phase of the game when the Malaysian took over the charge of the game by taking the
bird early at the net.
Zulfadli remained on the positive track and finished up the second game with a tight margin of 21-19. The concluding result of this two-set contest was 21-9 and 21-19.
After the match, Zulfadli said, “I picked up the blister during the team final against South Korea. It affected my play today. I hope to get a good rest and come back stronger for my clash against Wisnu.”
In the quarter-final match, Zulfadli will take on Indonesia’s Wisnu Yuli Prasetyo, who defeated Thammasin Sitthikom of Thailand in the previous round.
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