Singapore Open Badminton: Defending women’s doubles champions Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari fall in round-of-16

Story by Koh Yizhe/Red Sports. Photos by Vanessa Lim/Red Sports

Singapore Indoor Stadium, Thursday, June 16, 2011 — The Russian pair of Valeri Sorokikna and Nina Vislova snuffed out Singapore’s best hopes of a medal in the 2011 Li-Ning Singapore Open when they beat the defending women’s doubles champions Yao Lei and Shinta Mulia Sari 21-14, 20-22, 17-21 in the round-of-16.

After having to come from a game down to beat England’s Mariana Agathangelou and Heather Olver 19-21, 21-8, 21-16 in their first round match, Yao Lei and Shinta had no problems getting off to a quick 4-0 start this time against the Russians as they took advantage of a couple of missed drop shots by their opponents.

The Russians took some time to settle and when they did, they nailed some accurate drop shots to narrow the gap to 9-10 in the opening game.

That only pumped up the Singaporean pairing as they scored seven straight points to stretch their lead. Although the Russians saved two game points later on, Yao Lei and Shinta took the first set 21-14.

It looked like Singapore’s Commonwealth Games silver medallists would stroll into the quarter-finals after winning the first set comfortably.

However, Sorokikna and Vislova came out more aggressively in the second gmae to make it a closer game, even taking their first lead of the match at 5-4.

The two teams traded points until the Russians were poised to take the set at 19-17. However, the Singaporeans stormed back, scoring three straight points to set up match point.

Alas, they could not capitalise on the opportunity to end the match.

At 19-20 down, the eighth-seeded Russian duo saved a match-point before going on to even the match at one set apiece. They took the second set 22-20 when Yao Lei sent a service return into the net.

The Singapore women’s doubles head coach Eng Hian explained: “It was our strategy at the start to defend and look for the chance to counter attack.”

“It worked in the first game but we totally defended in the second and didn’t attack at all. By the end, we could not find a chance to counter attack. I think we lost the mental aspect of the game as they felt the pressure and expectations of being champions.”

The Singaporean pair looked lost at times in the third game as they trailed by as many as six points.

Down 7-1, it looked bleak for the Singaporean pair as they found the net numerous times but still, they managed to battle back to narrow the Russians’ lead to just one at 10-11.

That would be as close as they would get. When they sent a smash into the net to set up match-point for the Russians, their opponents required no additional invitation to seal the match. That, they did, with a smash that Yao Lei was unable to return.

The Russians had 29 smash winners to the Singaporeans’ 12.

After the match, Shinta Mulia Sari said: “In the first game, we did fine, but in the second, we were too cautious at the back and did not dare to attack. We were only defending.”

For the Russian pair, their sights are set on the London Olympic Games next year.

“We really want to qualify for the Olympic Games in London. We knew that this win will help us as the Li-Ning Singapore Open will earn us qualifying points towards our Olympic goal.’’