Surprise! Gregoria Beats Akane Yamaguchi To Win Ticket To Malaysia Open 2022 Second Round

JAKARTA — Indonesian women's singles Gregoria Mariska Tunjung successfully reached the second round of the 2022 Malaysia Open. She overthrew the world number one badminton player Akane Yamaguchi.

Gregoria made a surprise by playing in just 27 minutes to pocket a ticket to the last 16 at the Axiata Arena, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on Tuesday, 28 June. She eliminated the Japanese representative in straight sets, 21-14 and 21-14.

On paper, Gregoria is actually not seeded against the 25-year-old badminton player. The reason is, his record was win-lose with Yamaguchi 1-8 before this victory.

However, Gregoria managed to perform nicely in this match. She immediately stole a good start by producing three consecutive points early in the first game and leading 11-4 at the interval.

After the break, Gregoria did not give her opponent a chance to freely score points. He successfully harvested four consecutive points to stay away before winning the game with a big gap of seven points.

In the second game, Gregoria continued his good performance from the first game. He managed to get three consecutive points before Yamaguchi identified the score 6-6.

However, Gregoria dropped just a point after that to take the lead at half-time. After the break, the badminton player from Wonogiri again immediately spawned three consecutive points and managed to close the match with an identical score in the first game.

In the second round later, Gregoria will face one of China's representatives between He Bingjiao or Wang Zhi Yi. The two badminton players were trying to get tickets for the second round when this news was written.