Ratchanok, Boonsak advance to second round of Badminton Asia Championships
Reigning champion and world No.1 Ratchanok Intanon and veteran Boonsak Ponsana successfully cleared their first hurdles in the US$200,000 Dong Feng Citroen Badminton Asia Championships 2016 in Wuhan, China on Wednesday.
Fourth-seeded Ratchanok, who made much of the impact after making a clean sweep of three World Superseries events in succession in incredible three weeks including the Malaysia Open and the Singapore Open to move atop the BWF world rankings last week, got off to a flying start on Wednesday with a convincing 21-7 21-11 victory over Malaysian Ho Yen Mei. The Thai sensation next takes on Japanese Sayaka Sato.
Team-mate Nichaon Jindapol was also in dominant form to thrash Indonesian Fanetri Lindaweni 21-10 21-18 to next face a daunting task in the second round against Indian fifth seed Sainal Nelwah, silver medallist at the last year’s world meet.
World No.18 Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, who is on the fringe of qualifying for the Rio Games, fought hard against Chinese top seed and world No.3 Li Xuerui, to whom she lost in straight games in the last Saturday's China Masters, before going down to the London Olympic gold medallist in hard-fought three games 21-19 6-21 15-21, while team-mate Busman Ongbumrungphan also crashed out in the first round after going down to Japanese second seed Nozomi Okuhara 18-21 21-15 7-21.
In the men’s singles, only Thai ace and world No.23 Boonsak Ponsana survived the first-round exit following the scintillating 21-19 21-13 win over Taiwanese Hsu Jen Hao. He next goes up against Indonesian seventh seed and last year’s Indonesian Masters champion Tommy Sugiarto in the Thursday’s second round.
Unfortunately, the other two Thai players failed to make their mark, with Kosit Phetpradab beaten by Taiwanese six seed Chou Tien Chen 21-14 21-15 and Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk going down to Japanese Ueda Takuma 21-23 18-21.
In the women’s doubles event, Thailand’s Savitree Amitrapai/Pacharapun Chochuwong brushed off Vietnam’s Nguyen Thi Sen/Vu Thi Trang 21-17 21-10 and will next take on Japanese Naoko Fukuman/Kunami Yonao. Also advancing to the second round were Putita Supajirakul/Sapsiree Taerattanachai, who received a walkover from Koreans Yoo Have Won/Go An Ra.
The other two Thai pairings went down fighting, with Chayanit Chaladchalaem/Phataimas Muenwong losing 16-21 16-21 to Japanese Yuki Fukushima/Sayaka Hirota and Jongkolphan Kittitharakul/Rawinda Prajongjai succumbing 18-21 8-21 defeat to Indonesian third seeds Nitya Kris Maheswari/Greysia Polii.
No Thai shuttlers made it to the second round in the men’s doubles event when all three Thai pairings lost their matches.
Wannawat Ampunsuwan/Tinn Isriyanate lost to Indonesians Marcas Fer Gideon/Kevin Sanj Sukamuljo 21-15 14-21 13-21, while Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Kittinupon Kedren went down to Chinese Liu Xiaolong/Qiu Zhihan 20-22 21-18 16-21 and Bodin Issara/Nipitphon Puangpupetch lost 25-23 16-21 13-21 to Taiwanese Lee Jhe-Huei/Lee Yang.