Paris Olympian Tiffany Ho [AUS] stuck to what she does best today to lock in her spot in the Women’s Singles Round of 16 at the Roketto Sydney International.
The No. 5 seed Sydneysider summed up her strategy to win the 64-minute 21-12, 24-26, 21-9 clash against Yuan Chi Liao [TPE] perfectly after the match.
“I love grinding through it all,” she said with a smile.
After taking out the first game with ease, the path to victory looked straightforward for Ho, however, Liao had other plans taking out the second in thrilling fashion at 26-24.
“I started the second game a little shaky as I’d just won the first and I knew it was time to focus, which then made myself more tense,” Ho said.
“During the third I found a way to keep myself relaxed and take it one point at a time which helped develop a good build-up to take the win.
“I am glad that I was able to perform under the pressure when it mattered.”
The 26-year-old is on the tail end of a jam-packed year which included making her Olympic debut in Paris, in addition to several other tournaments, including last week’s YONEX Bendigo International.
“I’ve only been training properly for the past two weeks since returning from the Olympics, so my fitness is taking a bit of a toll, but I will keep grinding through it all for the rest of the week here in Sydney.
Ho will now face Japan’s Saena Kawakami in the WS Round of 16.
Freshly paired Australian Men’s Doubles duo Avinash Srinivas and Aneesh Nirmal also dug-deep to secure their spot in Friday’s Round of 16 after going up against fellow Aussie Landon Kurniawan and New Zealand’s Daniel Hu.
Srinivas and Nirmal narrowly lost the first game 19-21, but then found vulnerability in their opponents to secure the next two 21-19, 21-14.
“We weren’t playing to our best, but we found a strategy that worked, and we stuck to it,” Nirmal said.
“They were a bit off on their defence today, so we applied plenty of pressure which definitely worked to our advantage.”
Srinivas added “we couldn’t play drives all day as Landon was strong on the attack and Daniel was great at changing the direction – we kept the pressure up and waited out each rally.”
Their next match in the MD Round of 16 is against Japan’s Hiroki Midorikawa and Kyohei Yamashita.
In the Men’s Singles Round of 32, Macau’s Pang Fang Pui eliminated No.1 seed Soong Joo Ven [MAS] in a thrilling 67-minute three-game match.
After losing the first game 15-21, it looked to be a long road to victory for Pui, but the 24-year-old remained resilient to secure the next two 21-13, 21-13.
“It was the first time playing such a difficult and long match,” Pui said via translator
“I needed to have a positive attitude to win the match. It was very tiring. In the middle of it all I didn’t think too much about it as I noticed my opponent was getting tired and wasn’t as focused compared to the start of our match.”
“The most important thing for me after this victory is that it’s improved my confidence and I’ve also realised that I am able to create incredible shots when they’re needed.”
Pui’s next match in the MS Round of 16 is against Chinese Taipei’s Ping-Hsien Huang.
Head to https://bit.ly/RSINT2024 to check out all the results from Day 2.
Tournament play at the Roketto Sydney International 2024 continues tomorrow, Friday October 18 at 12pm.
Tune into the Badminton Oceania YouTube channel to watch all the action live from Court 1 & 2: https://bit.ly/RSI2024StreamingPlaylist
