Yonex Japan Open 2012: Minatsu Mitani thrashes Juan Gu in Women’s Singles first round
Minatsu Mitani, an emerging shuttler from Japan, lived up to the expectations of her home fans as she played remarkable badminton in Women’s Singles first round and toppled her higher ranked rival Juan Gu of Singapore at the Yonex Japan Open 2012 at Tokyo,
Japan, on Wednesday, September 19.
The un-seeded Minatsu, who has been showing her remarkable skills for the last few months, made her presence strongly felt as she outplayed her Singaporean rival who was seeded at number seven in Women’s Singles main draw of the tournament.
Minatsu played with remarkable precision and proved that she is ready to take bigger challenges as she put up amazing show of top class game and overpowered Juan who is one of the most experienced shuttlers from Singapore.
On the other hand, the higher ranked Guan played quivering badminton as she failed to find a good rhythm and also could not control the pace of rallies. She remained unable to put up strong show and went down to her un-seeded rival in straight sets in just
40 minutes.
In the first set, Minatsu played with confidence from starting points and took an early lead without facing a tough resistance from her rival.
The in-form Japanese player showed her remarkable skills and managed a reasonable lead of 11-7 until the one-minute break.
After the interval, Minatsu failed to maintain her aggression which helped her opponent to make the score levelled at 12-12.
However, the Japanese lady managed to take control of the game again by playing positive and fast badminton and took the set with a 21-16 score on the board.
The second game of this contest was tough when both players showed their aggression by taking the bird early and managed to remain close on score board until the end of first part.
After the break, the local player showed her class again and took over the control of rallies. She remained positive at this crucial stage in the second set and ended it with a margin of 21-17.
Minatsu emerged as victorious against Juan as she finished the battle in straight games by putting up a 21-16 and 21-17 score on the board.
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