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Anthony proves maturity as he thrashes Chen Long
Beast handler: Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia celebrates after beating Chen Long of China 18-21, 22-20 and 21-16 in the second round of the 2018 China Open on Friday
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east handler: Anthony Sinisuka Ginting of Indonesia celebrates after beating Chen Long of China 18-21, 22-20 and 21-16 in the second round of the 2018 China Open on Friday. (Courtesy of PBSI)
Indonesian shuttler Anthony Sinisuka Ginting succeeded in silencing the home crowd at the Olympic Sports Center’s Xincheng Gymnasium in Changzhou on Friday as he thrashed the host favorite Chen Long during the quarterfinal of the 2018 China Open.
Anthony performed in a more mature manner as he mastered his emotions and remained solid throughout the match against the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medalist. Losing the first set 18-21, the 21-year-old Cimahi-born forced the Chinese to play the deciding game after securing the second game 22-20.
Patience played an important role in Anthony’s win over Chen as he was not in a rush to attack his opponent. In the decider, he turned things around when the score was 5-7 by clinching the next six points to close the interval of the third game 11-7.
Anthony maintained his consistency by rarely making unforced errors and kept his lead despite Chen trying to make a comeback by minimizing the gap 15-13.
With a beautiful front court game shown through thin netting balls, Ginting closed the deciding game 21-16 and crushed Chen’s hopes of winning his fifth China Open title.
“It was a good match against Chen today [Friday] as he played really well in the first game. He rarely makes unforced errors,” Anthony said, as quoted by badmintonindonesia.org.
“I was leading 19-13 in the second game, but I could not win immediately as I was forcing myself to attack him, which [I should not have done],” he added.
Learning from his mistake in the second game, he went on to say that he tried to get the upper hand on his opponent from his netting game as he knew he could get the opportunity to attack Chen from using that strategy.
With this win, he continued his positive trend in the tournament of beating top names.
Two-time Olympic gold medalist Lin Dan of China and the 2016 Rio Olympic bronze medalist and 2017 World Champion, Viktor Axelsen of Denmark, were the victims of Anthony’s charms in the first and second round of the tournament, respectively.
Commenting on Anthony’s success, badminton observer Broto Happy said the shuttler’s achievement was magnificent as he could keep his consistency in beating top names in the tournament.
Besides his sharpness on the court, Broto evaluated that Anthony was now faster than before.
“He can control his game rhythm, as he knows the right time to attack his opponent. The Asian Games’ result has boosted his performance,” he told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
Anthony’s win was also a positive sign for the country’s men singles, which has rarely resulted in stunning achievements after the era of 2004 Athens Olympic gold medalist Taufik Hidayat, added Broto.
Anthony, who is currently the world number 13, will face world number five Chou Tien Chen of Taiwan in the semifinal on Saturday.
He led their head-to-head against Chou by winning three of their five encounters, but Chou won their last encounter in the Asian Games last month by defeating him in the semifinal of the singles competition.
Unfortunately, Anthony’s win did not spread to the country’s mixed-doubles pair Ricky Karandasuwardi-Debby Susanto as they lost to Hong Kong pair Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet 15-21 and 11-21.
