Three Thai shuttlers secure women’s singles semi-final berths in Germany
Three Thai women’s singles players advanced to the semi-finals of the US$120,000 Bitburger Badminton Open Grand Prix Gold in Saarbrucken, Germany, with second-seeded and world No.14 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, bronze medalist at this year’s China Masters, thrashing world No.23 Spaniard Beatriz Corrales in comfortable two games to set up an all-Thais battle against fourth-seeded and world No.19 Nitch
Porntip pulled off a one-sided 21-12 21-7 win over sixth-seeded Corrales, winner at this year’s Brazil Grand Prix, in just 25 minutes to take on team-mate Nichaon, who came from behind to beat Taiwanese Lee Chia Hsin 10-21 21-14 21-9 in gruelling 61 minutes, in the Saturday’s semi-final encounter.
Third seeded and world No.13 Busanan Ongbamrungphan, winner at this year’s Indonesian Masters and silver medallist at the Thailand Open, outclassed Swiss world No.75 Sabrina Jaquet 21-9 21-11 in 27 minutes. However, a daunting task awaits Busanan in the semi-finals when she will next go up against Chinese top seed He Bingjiao, who powered past Dane Mette Poulsen 21-16 21-15 in the quarter-finals on Friday. He Bingjiao is current world No.10 and has already captured three titles this year consisting of Swiss Open, Japan Open and French Open.
In the women’s doubles event, world No.16 and second-seeds Jongkolphan Kititharak/Rawinda Prajongjai, silver medallists at this year’s Indonesian Masters and bronze medallists at the Thailand Open, recovered from the first game down 18-21 to Germans Isabel Herttraich/Carla Nelte to take the remaining two games 21-4 21-18. The Thai duo are due to play Chinese Huang Dongping/Li Yinhui in the Saturday’s semi-finals.