Strong South Korea wallop Thailand

Thailand’s dreams of making the final of the Sudirman Cup World Mixed Team Championships were completely dashed yesterday when old foes South Korea walloped them 3-1 in the semi-finals.

Blanked 0-5 by the same rivals in the group round-robin preliminaries last week, Thailand yesterday fielded a strong roster to boost their chances of securing a final berth. Their well-established line-up included world No 5 and the India Open Super Series champion Ratchanok Intanon and world No 8 Boonsak Ponsana.

Since the inception of the biennial tournament in 1989 in Jakarta, the Thai squad had never advanced to the semi-finals of the prestigious competition. In the previous edition in Qingdao, China, two years ago, Thailand failed to get past even the first round group stage.

Therefore, making it to the semi-finals in the Sudirman Cup was itself a historic achievement by the Thai badminton team. A few months ago, Thailand made a big impact on the world stage by clinching a silver in the world’s richest world mixed team tournament, US$1-million Axiata Cup.

Against three-time champions South Korea, Thailand were represented by world No 6 Sudket Prapakamol and Saralee Thoungthongkam, winners of the Indonesia Open last year, in the mixed doubles rubber.

However, the Thais’ efforts to make amends for last week’s defeat at the group stage to the Asian champions and world No 69 Ko Sung-hyun and Kim Ha-na failed when they lost 21-18 21-19 to hand the Koreans an initial lead of 1-0.

Veteran Boonsak Ponsana, 31, and winner of the Singapore Open last year, gave Thailand a glimmer of hope when he thrashed world No 63 Lee Dong-keun in a totally one-sided battle 21-9 21-12 in their first ever meeting to equalise the tie at 1-1.

In the men’s doubles event, Thailand’s world No 57 Maneepong Jongjit and Nipitphon Puangpuapech found world No 2 Ko Sung-hyun/Lee Yong-dae too tough to handle.

The current Asian champions Ko and Lee had already beaten Maneepong and Nipitphon in straight games last week. This time, the Koreans repeated the feat by crushing the Thai duo 21-12 21-11. South Korea widened the gap to 2-1.

All Thai hopes rested on teen prodigy Ratchanok Intanon, who two days ago helped Thailand cruise past Japan 3-1 to the semi-finals for the first time.

Against the taller Sung Ji-hyun, world No 6 and the Korea Open winner, Ratchanok showed her full potential only in the first game which she lost narrowly at 21-19.

The Thai girl tried to stay in the match but the injury to her right ankle, sustained a few weeks ago, started to take its toll on her in the second game. Sung came up with several overhead court-court smashes, which Ratchanok found difficult to retrieve. Sung continued her aggressive streak to capture the lop-sided game 21-14 and the match.

Sung’s win not only stretched her head-to-head win-loss record to 6-2 against Ratchanok but also widened the victory margin to 3-1, enough for South Korea to advance to the final.

In today’s final, the South Koreans are due to take on the winners of the match between defending and eight-time champions China and Denmark, which was to be played later yesterday evening.