ITE College East, Tuesday, 13 January 2009 – Temasek Polytechnic won three rounds out of five against Singapore Management University at the Institute-Varsity-Polytechnic badminton games.
The first round of singles pitted SMU's Yoggie against ex-national player Aaron Tan. Not exactly one of the most well-matched games, Yoggie found it difficult to return Tan's rapid smashes and TP gained consecutive points. Even though Yoggie was making plenty of movement, running around, he was unable to cover his side of the court from Tan's net and push shots. The rally was usually cut short by a smash by Tan. The first set ended at 21-3, led by TP.
The second set did not spell anything different for SMU. The SMU player's forceful backhand resulted in an 'out'.
The TP player continued to dominate the game, jump smashing to the other side, hitting into his opponent's blind spot. Yoggie appeared to be quite frustrated and missed hitting the shuttlecock. The second gamed ended at 21-6, led by TP.
Yoggie, player from SMU, concludes, “This match was quite hard for me because I am still quite an inexperienced player. However I considered it a good experience and a good opportunity for me to play with a skillful player.”
Aaron Tan, player from Temasek Polytechnic says, “On the whole, I would say that it was rather an easy match because my opponent was weak at the basics. I give him credit for never giving up. I guess with more practice, he can improve.”
The second round was a doubles game between Scott Ng and Ridwan Basin from TP and Huang Yong Kang and Alex Sim from SMU.
This game was faster in tempo as both teams had their own strengths and were better matched in skills.
The SMU duo was good at jump smashes while the TP duo appeared to have better coordination. TP won the two sets with the scores 21-10 and 21-6.
The next round saw TP's Swee Haw against SMU's Terrence Ng. TP had the edge in this round as well with the scores 21-8 and 21-7. The following singles and doubles game was won by SMU, leaving the final tally at 3-2, led by TP.