Zhengming Wang and Kazushi Yamada advance in the All England Open Badminton Championship
China’s Zhengming Wang and Japan’s Kazushi Yamada have booked their place in the second round of the All England Open Badminton Championship 2011, by beating their opponents in the first round, held in Birmingham, on March 9.
The Chinese shuttler defeated Sung Hwan Park of Korea in straight sets, whereas, Kazushi Yamada dashed the hopes of Indonesian fans by beating the Second seed Indonesian player, Taufik Hidayat, in straight games.
The young Chinese, Zhengming, is gradually becoming a complete player in all aspects of the game, as he is beating elite players from all over the world. In the opening round, the Chinese put up a wonderful show against the Korean, Park. Right from the start
of the opening set, both men kept the pace high and were controlling the bird effectively.
The score progressed at the same rate from both sides and reached at 8-8, where the Chinese took a three-point lead and reached 11-8, at the interval. After the one-minute break, Zhengming continued his superb speed and dominated the rallies throughout the
set. He finished the opening set with a decent margin of 21-17, in just 17 minutes.
In the second set, Park matched the pace of his opponent and remained aggressive from the starting points. The Korean was leading the game by 11-10, when the Chinese became quick at the net and took the driving seat by scoring four points in a row, to make
it a 14-11 lead. In the rest of the second set, Zhengming remained ahead of the Korean and finished the match by the same margin of 21-17, in 19 minutes. The final score of the 36-minute match was 21-17 and 21-17.
In another Men’s singles match, Kazushi of Japan, made the first upset of the match when he defeated the former World and Olympic champion, Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia. On paper, it was a one-sided match as the Indonesian was clearly the favourite due to
his experience in the game. Kazushi had other things in his mind and he stunned everyone with his incredible performance.
In the opening set of the game, Kazushi established a quick lead of 9-4 and maintained it throughout the whole game. At the one-minute interval, the Japanese was leading the game by 11-5. The Indonesian was not at his best as he was lacking the pace and
could not control the powerful strokes of the young Japanese. Kazushi took only 14 minutes to win the first game with a remarkable margin of 21-10.
The Japanese was quite consistent in the second game and spared no opportunity for the Number Two seed to come-back in the match. He finished the second set with a good margin of 21-14, by spending 17 minutes on the court. The score of the 31-minute match
was, 21-10 and 21-14.
Kazushi will be facing Zhengming in the second round of the event. A lot can be expected from the match, as the young Japanese will be heading into the contest with immense confidence.
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