Thai shuttlers hope to make amends in individual events

Despite a strong squad of top players, including world junior No 1 Busanan Ongbumrungpan in the women’s singles, No 2 Sitthikom Thammasin in the men’s singles and Narissapat Lam in the women’s doubles, the Kingdom had to settle for sixth place in the mixed team category after losing to Japan 3-2 in the quarter-final and to Malaysia 3-1 in the play-off for fifth.

Thai head coach Tessana Panvisvas is confident his team will recover in the individual events, with Busanan carrying Thailand’s brightest hope of a gold medal.

“Our best chance is in women’s singles, followed by men’s singles. If Busanan can maintain the level she showed in the mixed team, she will be very tough to beat,” said former national doubles player Tessana.

Seventeen-year-old Busanan, who claimed her first title of the season in the Dutch Open three weeks ago, received a first-round bye and will kick off her campaign against Anna Tang of the US tomorrow. She won all her singles matches last week, including a straight-games victory over top seed Aya Ohori of Japan.

“Deep in my heart I want to win, but there will be no pressure if I can’t make it. Aya will be one of the toughest opponents for me and there are some Chinese girls who are really strong,” said the Thai.

While Busanan is at the top of her game, there are doubts about Sitthikom, who is not fully recovered from a back injury he picked up during the clash against Canada last week.

“I stopped training for a few days and only resumed on Sunday. The pain is not entirely gone but I still have one more day to rest and hopefully it will get even better,” said the 18-year-old, who will play a second-round match against South Africa’s Michael Jennings tomorrow.

Elsewhere, in Paris, Porntip Burananprasertsuk missed another chance to capture her first title of the year when she lost to China’s Shixian Wang 21-18 21-18 in the French Open women’s singles final on Sunday.

Porntip, who lost to Liu Xin 21-4 13-21 21-12 in the final of the China Masters Super Series in Guangzhou two months ago, played smart and came up with incredible shots at times against Wang. However, a lack of consistency began to take its toll in the deciding game.