Taufik grinds down Gade in thriller at Singapore Open
Taufik grinds down Gade in thriller at Singapore Open
Agencies, Singapore
Taufik Hidayat overcame Denmark's Peter Gade 15-13, 15-17 in a thrilling quarterfinal at badminton's Singapore Open 2005 on Friday.
It took the Indonesian ace 95 minutes to subdue the determined Dane despite holding matchpoint twice in the second set at 14-13, official website www.singaporebadmintonopen.com reported.
He dropped two points before finding a final burst of adrenaline to win 17-15.
"It was a very tough match, two games lasting over one and a half hours. But I loved it," said Taufik, adding that it was good to keep his winning momentum against Gade going.
"I've now won the last three encounters so it's a good feeling since I used to lose to him all the time."
Taufik and Gade had met 11 times prior to the quarterfinal, with the Dane having won seven of those encounters.
However, Taufik has got Gade's measure in recent times, beating him in the quarterfinals of the Japan Open earlier this year and in the Sudirman Cup mixed team championship in Beijing in May.
He also triumphed in the quarterfinals of the 2004 Olympic Games.
When he was down 3-9 in the second game, Taufik admitted he felt the momentum slipping away but steeled himself to win.
"I told myself I cannot lose and just focused on getting point after point."
Gade said that was the turning point in the mach.
"When I was leading 9-3 in the second game, the wind changed a bit and he was returning all the shots. I had to be careful with my baseline shots and that let him back into the game," he said.
Gade conceded that he was not the player he was three years ago when he would not have let Taufik back into the game
"I was playing against a player who is full of confidence, three years ago he may not have taken all his chances but today he did."
Taufik next faces China's Lin Dan, the men's No. 1-ranked player, who advanced with a 15-6, 15-3 over Hong Kong's Ng Wei.
Danish defending champion Kenneth Jonassen was upset by All England champion Chen Hong of China 5-6, 15-9. He will meet unseeded Lee Hyun Il in Saturday's semifinals.
In the women's singles, top ranked Xie Xingfang was upset by her Chinese compatriot Zhou Mi.
Eighth seeded Zhou scored a tidy 11-8, 11-7 win over Xie, who won the All England earlier this year.
The Chinese also dominated other women's matches played Friday as third-seeded Zhang Ning beat Hong Kong's Wang Chen 11-8, 11-2, and unseeded Jiang Yanjiao overcame Bulgarian Petya Nedeltcheva 11-2, 11-3.