Lee Hyun Il won in straight games against Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and thereby became the first foreigner to enter the finals at Yonex Copenhagen Masters this year.
The fifth match of the day at Yonex Copenhagen Masters was a round of men's singles featuring Hans-Kristian Vittinghus from Denmark and Lee Hyun Il from Korea.
The two gentlemen had faced each other three times prior to today's match. On those occations Vittinghus had prevailed all three times.
Korean streak
Vittinghus was also off to the best start today. During the first game he managed to claim and maintain the lead most of the way, but towards the end of it, Lee Hyun Il hit a streak of seven points which helped him secure a 16-14 lead.
From thereon, the Dane couldn't prevent the Korean veteran from going all the way and land the first game by 21-17.
And again
The story of the second game was somewhat similar. Once again Vittinghus gained the lead at first, and a comfortable one that was. He was leading by both 13-7 and 15-10, but as he did in the first game, Lee Hyun Il surprised again and raised his level of play towards the end of that game also.
From being behind by 14-16, he crawled his way up to the 21 points, while Vittinghus only managed to win two more points.
21-17 / 21-18 is the final score of the match.
Passive play from Vittinghus
After the match, Vittinghus congratulated his opponent but wasn't really that impressed by him.
- In both the first and second game I had quite the gaps, but I became to passive. I lowered my pace, and obviously when I do that, he gets dangerous. You gotta give him credit for his comeback, but somehow I feel, that the main reason for his win is caused by my own mistakes.
- The Koreans are always good defensively, and return many of the shuttles. That goes for Lee Hyn Il too. But it shouldn't be a surprise for me, and that's why it irritates me so much. I made it so easy for him.
Tomorrow Lee Hyun Il will face Viktor Axelsen in the final.