YONEX Thailand Open: Plucky Duo Vault into Semifinals
A tense quarterfinal, a lot of it featuring intense jockeying around the net, ended with Leo Rolly Carnando and Daniel Marthin continuing their stirring journey at the YONEX Thailand Open.
· DEV SUKUMAR
The Indonesian 19-year-olds couldn’t have had a better start to the New Year, making the semifinals of the World Tour Super 1000 event with a 12-21 21-14 21-15 victory over DANISA Denmark Open champions Marcus Ellis and Chris Langridge.
The experience of the England duo was pitted against the youthful energy of the world junior champions, and this time round, youth trumped experience. Carnando and Marthin made the right decisions at critical moments and capitalised on a few lapses by their opponents to clinch their semifinal place.
The Indonesians had given very little away with their serves, and after 13-all in the third, their play at the front court stayed sharp while the English wavered just that little bit. With the end of the match in sight, and with Carnando serving superbly, there was some gamesmanship as both pairs tried to extract advantage. Carnando, distracted, served into the net, but Langridge couldn’t take advantage and he returned the favour.