Russia’s big hitting men’s doubles pair Vladimir Ivanov and Ivan Sozonov are through to the quarterfinals, but what a match it was with the fourth seeds to get them there.
After winning the first round, Sozonov said that they enjoy playing against the Japanese pair of Keigo Sonoda and Takeshi Kamura. After their entertaining three game win, he explains why he said that.
-We showed great badminton today. I think both pairs on court showed their best badminton today on court. This time we play better on defence, and sometimes we were on top at the net. We won a difficult game. The fact that we had to go 21-19 in the final game shows it was very close. At times too we have luck, but we are happy with the performance.
After winning the opening game 21-14, the tables turned in the second game. Ivanov commented on what they did so right in the first game.
-Yes, we played the first game really good, because we had the right tactics in our positioning and first three shots. We were able to keep more on the attack, which is very comfortable for us.
In the deciding game, it was very tight all the way to the end, where at 19-19 all there was a tight line call. Sozonov discusses how important this moment was and how they kept their composure.
-We just played and kept fighting. We have had many situations like this before, but it was not called in our favour. But today we had a good line judge, and we were able to play the last rally really good, because we didn’t push and did more long shots which gave us more time to prepare our attacks.
The quarterfinals are shaping up. For the full results and fixtures, click here.