Story by Jiexin Neo/Red Sports. Photos by Matthew Lau/Red Sports
Danny Bawa Chrisnanta (SIN) smashes. (Photo 1 © Matthew Lau/Red Sports)
Singapore Indoor Stadium, Wednesday, April 9, 2014 — Vanessa Neo Yu Yan and Danny Bawa Chrisnanta of Singapore took down two sets straight at the Singapore Open to defeat India’s Ashwini Ponnappa and Tarun Kona, 21–15, 21–10.
In the first set, Singapore were leading 20–12 when their India opponents tried to reduce the deficit by playing smash defence. They managed to catch up to trail 15–20. However, Singapore managed to threaten their defence with two smashes, then ending the first set 21–15.
Vanessa and Danny were more composed during the second set, and they managed to grab the second win effortlessly (21–10).
Vanessa said, “It wasn’t easy at the start as we couldn’t figure out what their strategy was. But once we caught their weak points, we came up with a strategy and the game got easier towards the second set.”
When asked if they were worried when the scores were close at the start, Vanessa commented, “Not so much, because mostly during the first match of the tournament, we haven’t gotten used to the environment. So maybe the first five points would be neck-to-neck because each of us is trying to get used to each other’s play and to the speed of the shuttle and the lighting, so it’s not much of a worry.”
Danny said, “Every competition I come into, I aim to win the competition.” He believes that everyone has an equal chance at the victory, “because everyone can win, everyone can lose.”
Vanessa added that they would definitely want to win as many rounds as possible, to get as far as possible. She thinks that it does not matter what position they were in last year, as this is a whole new round of competition.
Scoring by Set
SIN vs IND
1st set: 21–15
2nd set: 21–10
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