Tontowi Ahmad, Liliyana Natsir march into Mixed Doubles quarter-finals – Denmark Open Update

Tontowi Ahmad, Liliyana Natsir march into Mixed Doubles quarter-finals – Denmark Open Update

Indonesia’s prime Mixed Doubles experts Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir continued their unbeatable run in Yonex Denmark Open and surged into the quarter-finals on October 18, 2012.

They stamped Mads Pieler Kolding-Kamilla Rytter Juhl with convincing margin of 21-16 and 21-14 after a gruelling effort of 36 minutes.

This pre quarter-final match was played at local badminton arena of Odense, Denmark and a huge crowd assembled to support the native shuttlers.

However, their hopes got buried as the experienced Indonesian campaigners stole the limelight with a lustrous performance.

World Number four duo played with great precision and ruled the court in both segments of the showdown.

Tontowi and Liliyana kick-started their campaign by prevailing in the establishing rallies and made best out of this initial advantage in later part of the opening game.

They piled up a mountainous total of 6-1 in no time and capitalised this lead in next couple of rallies.

Though, the Danish players strived hard to tip the scale in their favour but they could not hit the mark until half time.

Meanwhile, the twosome of Tontowi and Liliyana showed consistency in their performance and finished the first half of the set with a respectable score position of 11-7.

After the one-minute interval, the Indonesian shuttlers proved themselves superior in all areas of the game and strengthened their grip with 17-11 margin.

This deficit proved last nail in the coffin for Mads-Kamilla as they could not rise until the decisive figure of 16-21.

The second set was also played in similar manner as the suppressed duo of previous game could not come out of their rivals’ influence and lost tamely.

Initially, the local shuttlers showed some spark and gained an early advantage with four successive points but they could not go with the same flow and allowed the opposing team to counter-balance the situation.

Tontowi and Liliyana started the beating after 11-10 and made a notable difference by putting an indomitable margin of 17-12.

They swept the table with an overwhelming score of 21-14 and qualified for the quarter-finals where they are scheduled to meet the compatriot pair Markis Kido-Pia Zebadiah Bernadeth.