China’s in-form shuttler, Chen Long, had to play to his full potential to beat Japan’s Kenichi Tago in the Men’s Singles Group B match in the 2011 BWF Super Series Finals, on Thursday, December 15, at Liuzhou, China.
The right-handed Long, who has been placed at number three in the Men’s Singles world rankings, has to work extra hard to beat a spirited Tago in a thrilling fight that took 72 minutes of fabulous performance from both sides. The Chinese played well in the final set and won the match in three games.
It was a surprising performance for the local crowd as Tago thrashed Long with a huge margin in the opening game. However, the Chinese played to his maximum speed in the second game and levelled the match by winning it with a close difference. He continued his killing play in the final set and finished it up with a superb score.
In the opening game, the Chinese failed to play impressive badminton as he could not find a good flow. He committed many unforced errors and also missed some easy points. Tago maintained pressure on his local opponents in the whole set. Lon bowed down in the first game with a one-sided margin of 12-21.
In the following set, the score remained equal until 9-9 when the Chinese lifted up his level of play. He started to dominate the game by executing net strokes and forced Tago to lift the bird high in the air.
This wonderful strategy of the Chinese helped him in executing his powerful smashes coupled with net killings. He won the second game to level the match with a margin of 21-18.
In the final set of this thrilling fight, Long took no time in setting up an early lead by playing with wonderful aggression. His impressive strokes in all areas of the court left Tago with no choice.
The Chinese cheered the crowd by ending the final game in an impressive way with a wonderful margin of 21-13. The final score of this 72-minute Men’s Singles three-set match was 12-21, 21-18 and 21-13.
