Maybank Malaysia Open 2012 Day 4 Quarter Finals: Match Wrap Ups and Highlights
Day 4 of the Maybank Malaysia Open 2012 features the quarter finals.
Most of the major and breathtaking matches took place on the main court (court 1). Since there was official broadcasting on this court, badminton fans around the world were able to witness the trilling badminton action today.
The main highlight of the quarter finals of this Maybank Malaysia Open 2012 featured a match between current world no.1 and defending champion Lee Chong Wei against former Badminton World and Olympic champion, Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.
The atmosphere truly reflected Malaysia as a home to badminton. The premium seats were at full capacity!
Highlights on Some Major Matches
Women’s Singles: Saina Nehwal (IND) v Tine Baun (DEN)
The first ‘exciting match’ of the day featured the fierce battle between 32 year old Tine Baun and 21 year old Saina Nehwal.
There is certainly a significant age difference between the 2 players.
First Game: A thrilling start
Tine Baun used her skills and experience to intelligently set up several opportunities for herself.
Tine Baun’s precise shots towards the sidelines successfully caught Saina Nehwal off guard on a few occasions. However, there were unforced errors from Tine.
Some of her shots went long, especially when she hit it deep into the court.
On the other hand, Saina Nehwal worked hard to force the Dane to chase her shots. She led until the mid-game interval, but the score was very tight.
At this point it was difficult to determine who would take this game!
After the mid-game interval, Saina took that step. She widened the score gap, forcing desperate attempts from Tine.
Tine’s desperation led to unforced errors as some of her smashes hit the net.
Second Game: Signs of Fatigue
Tine took the lead initially.
However, the Indian badminton player forced her into a tiring game. Saina started firing more powerful smashes. Her net shots were beautifully executed. Saina looked confident at this point.
Forced into a Third Game
The second game eventually went into a deuce.
Despite playing so well, Saina could not end the game. The Dane incredibly took the second game 23-21, which forced the young Indian player into a third game.
The semi finalist…
Unfortunately for veteran Tine Baun she could not keep up with the young legs of Saina Nehwal. Saina ended the match 23-13, 21-23, 21-13.
Catch her in the semi-finals of the Maybank Malaysia Open 2012.
Chen Jin v Jan O Jorgensen
First Game: Aggressive Chen Jin, Conservative Jan
Chen Jin started the game strong. He took 7 straight points while leaving the Dane with no points!
Jan O Jorgensen struggled with his form in this game. The Dane was still playing very conservatively and he wasn’t taking risks.
Instead of firing his smashes towards the sidelines, Jan shot towards the body of Chen Jin more frequently.
On the other hand, Chen Jin was more adventurous in his attacks. He was very confident in the game and was taking high risks.
As opposed to Jan, Chen Jin was directing his winning shots at the sidelines.
The precision from the Chinese player eventually rewarded him.
However, the crowd was ‘all in’ for Jan O Jorgensen. Similar to his yesterday’s game against Lin Dan, the audiences here at the Maybank Malaysia open 2012 were cheering in favour of the Dane.
As a result, the score gap was narrowed down as the first game went on.
Chen Jin took many points with his accurate smashes directed towards the sidelines. Jan seemed to have a weakness in defending against smashes aimed towards the sidelines.
Towards the end of the first game, Jan’s level of confidence was seemingly low. He was not very confident especially at the front of the court.
He wasn’t even willing to leap forward and take his chances against Chen Jin’s net shots.
There were a couple of instances where he could have just performed a net kill, but he chose not to do so!
The first game was secured by the Chinese at 21-16.
Second Game: Tough Fight
The second game was a thriller! Chen Jin was leading but Jan O Jorgensen took the momentum away from the Chinese.
The cheers from the crowd for the Dane got even louder.
There was an obvious surge of confidence from the Dane. He began smashing towards the sidelines, and even played a couple of deceptive shots!
The Dane was taking more initiative to end rallies with winning shots. Exciting exchanges occurred with both players attacking and defending.
The Dane took the lead. Chen Jin reached game point but Jan forced the game to a deuce.
It was such a tough fight between the two that it had already been 59 minutes of play when the second game finished.
Third Game: Chen Jin Fires Up
The competitiveness dipped a little compared to the second game. The Dane couldn’t keep up with Chen Jin’s pace.
Chen Jin caught Jan out of position on many occasion. The game appeared to be to demanding for the Danish player.
The score gap was very wide at one point (Chen Jin was leading at 18-4).
Chen Jin finished off the rubber game and will proceed to the semi finals.
The score was 21-16, 20-22, 21-6.
Lee Chong Wei (MAS) v Taufik Hidayat (INA)
This match was the main highlight of the quarter finals day of the Maybank Malaysia Open 2012.
Interestingly, this match was the exact repeat of last year’s finals of the Proton Malaysia Open 2011.
Taufik had a small advantage, he didn’t play at the Korea Open.
First Game
The first game’s scoreline was very similar to last year’s game. Lee Chong Wei took a wide lead at the mid game interval (11-3).
Taufik did not seem to struggle (in terms of fitness) against Tien Minh yesterday.
However, he needed to play at a much higher intensity and pace against the world no.1 Lee Chong Wei.
There was nothing much Taufik could do to end the rallies as fast as possible.
The Malaysian took the first game convincingly at 21-9.
Second Game
It was still not the Malaysian’s moment to celebrate. Taufik has always been known to be a ‘slow starter’.
In most tournaments, he would usually take some time to find his best form.
Although the crowd’s cheer was on the Malaysian, Taufik managed to turn the game around and took the lead in the second game.
The Indonesian picked up the pace, patiently went into the long rallies and amazingly, he was able to defend against most of Chong Wei’s attacks.
He found chances for counter attacks when the Malaysian was not ready.
It was actually Taufik Hidayat who was taking the initiatives to inject the paces into the rallies.
He went for the winning shots more often than the Malaysian in the second game.
Lee Chong Wei definitely had a tough fight with the former Olympic champion in this second game.
Fortunately for the defending champion Lee Chong Wei, he was able to secure another win here at the quarter finals of the Maybank Malaysia Open 2012.
The score was 21-9, 21-18.
Maybank Malaysia Open 2012 Announcement & how to get tickets
Maybank Malaysia Open 2012 Event Program
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