Ratchanok storms into India Open final
Thai shuttler vanquishes South Korea’s Bae to set up title showdown against Chinese star Li
Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon, ranked No.5 in the world, was in a scintillating form yesterday when she breezed into the final of the Superseries India Open.
Ratchanok, last year’s runner-up who has been seeded fourth for the US$300,000 tournament, yesterday needed only 36 minutes to score a comfortable 21-8, 21-11 victory over Bae Yeon-Ju, the unseeded world No.15 from South Korea.
Ratchanok’s domination of Bae was so complete that she hardly gave any chance to her opponent to find her rhythm.
In the first game, the Thai picked up six unanswered points to leave Bae struggling.
The South Korean fared marginally better in the second game in which Ratchanok also repeated the feat of scoring points in a row.
The former world champion from Thailand only trailed once in the second game by a single point at the beginning, but once she got going, Ratchanok was never really troubled.
Reigning Asian champion Ratchanok, who registered her fourth victory over the South Korean in seven meetings, will be making her third appearance in an India Open final.
Ratchanok first won
the tournament i n 2013 when she defeated Juliane Schenk of Germany.
However, the Thai star was beaten in straight sets to world No.6 Saina Nehwal of the host country in last year’s final.
In today’s title showdown, the Thai ace takes on third seed Li Xuerui of China, who edged defending champion and second seed Nehwal 22-20, 17-21, 21-19 in the other semifinal yesterday.
Ratchanok is likely to face a tough battle in her attempt to win the tournament for the second time in her career. She has so far been able to record only four victories against her Chinese opponent in their past 11 meetings.
There was disappointment for the Thai camp in the mixed doubles semifinals yesterday, leaving Ratchanok to be sole contender left from the country in the tournament.
The Thai pair of Bodin Issara and Savitree Amitrapai were beaten 2-1 (18-21, 21-13, 7-21) by Indonesia’s Riky Widianto and Puspita Dili in 46 minutes yesterday.
Meanwhile, Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, president of the Badminton Association of Thailand, said the Thailand Badminton Premier League is scheduled to start within this year.
With a total budget of 30 million baht, six to eight teams are expected to participate in three events (men’s single, women’s single and mixed doubles) with the winning team pocketing five million baht.
As for the Thai shuttlers’ bid to qualify for the 2016 Rio Olympics in August, they have four more events to achieve their target. These tournaments are the Malaysia Open, Singapore Open, China Open and Asian Championship.
So far, Ratchanok is the only Thai player who looks set to claim a place in this year’s Olympics.