Ratchanok and doubles players in semis

Teen sensation Ratchanok Inthanon overpowered the in-form Sung Ji-hyun in a thrilling hard-fought encounter on Friday. The 17-year-old, who has won the world junior meet three times in succession and is ranked No 11 in the world, was the lone Thai singles player to advance further than the second round in this tournament.

World No 10 Sung, who won two major titles – the Korea GP Gold and Chinese Taipei Open – had handed Ratchanok a first-round exit in the same event last year where she went on to capture the silver medal. Last week at the All-England Championships, Sung sent the Thai teen packing in the second round.

Against the same opponent in the quarter-finals of the US$125,000 Basel meet, Ratchanok took the opening game comfortably at 21-14, but the South Korean counterpart struck back to win the second game at 21-14.

The decider saw the promising Thai race to a commanding 17-13 lead. To everyone’s astonishment, Sung produced several well-placed shots and effective drops to level scores at 19-19. However, the Thai girl still had enough to hold off her formidable rival. She won the last two crucial points to win the hotly-contested game and earn a semi-final berth.

 The win helped Ratchanok to edge closer to Sung 2-4 in their head-to-head meetings. In yesterday’s semi-finals, Ratchanok was due to go up against world No 3 Wang Shixian. The much stronger Chinese second seed captured the recent Korea Open title besides entering the semi-final of the Malaysia Open and the All-England Championships.

 Meanwhile, the all-Thai mixed doubles quarter-final tussle between Sudket Prapakamol/Saralee Thoungthongkam and Maneepong Jongjit/Savitree Amitrapai saw the former beat their rivals 21-13 21-9. Sudket and Saralee were due to challenge He Hanbin/Bao Yixin in the semi-finals. The Chinese duo pulled out a dramatic 2-1 (21-18 18-21 21-18) victory over Taiwanese second-seeds Chen Hung Ling/Cheng Wen Hsing in another quarter-final match on Friday.