Kazumasa Sakai stuns Tien Chen Chou to surge into semi-final of Austrian International Challenge

Japan’s spirited player Kazumasa Sakai surprised everyone as he reached into Men’s Singles semi-final after upsetting the top seed Tien Chen Chou of Chinese Taipei at the quarter-final stage of Austrian International Challenge 2013 in Austria, on Friday, February 22.

The sixth seeded Kazumasa, who remained impressive in all of his matches in Men’s Singles draw in this championship, continued his convincing run in the quarter-final where he demolished the higher ranked Tien Chen in a striking fashion.

Japanese shuttler was on a different level as he did not take any pressure of his top seeded challenger and remained successful in winning this quarter-final contest with a comprehensive margin of 21-11 and 21-10 in just 32 minutes.

Top seeded Tien Chen failed to play positive badminton as he was not ready to face such a fierce treatment from his lower ranked Japanese challenger. He failed to play dominating badminton and eventually lost the battle in straight games without even getting a respectable total.

The impressive speed and powerful strokes of Kazumasa helped him to take control of the pace right from the starting points of first set.

Kazumasa showed that he has attained top quality skills on court and ultimately successful in taking a strong domination on court.

It was Kazumasa who showed no respect to his aggressive opponent in the first half and clinched a spectacular lead in the game.

After the one-minute interval, Kazumasa stayed focused in the arena and remained successful in keeping a sound difference.

It was a smooth sailing for the in-form Kazumasa who did not face any considerable opposition from his opponent and won the opening game with a stunning 21-11 margin on the board.

Tien Chen was once again in trouble in the second game as he faced a punishing treatment from his challenger who was at his best in the arena.

The cracking smashes and spinning net shots kept Kazumasa ahead of his challenger all the way until the end of first part in second set.

Tien Chen failed to put up strong show in the second set of this fight as his opponent Kazumasa played flawless badminton and grabbed the set with a staggering 21-10 margin on the board.

In the semi-final clash, Kazumasa will be up against his compatriot Riichi Takeshita who won his quarter-final contest against Belgium’s Yuhan Tan.

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Posted by Muhammad Ahmad Nazir on Feb 23 2013. Filed under Sports, World. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.