Li stops Ratchanok's run in All England
The Thai fans sank hearts on Saturday when Chinese ace Li Xuerui smashed Ratchanok Intanon's dreams of making it to her second final of the All England Superseries Premier following her convincing 21-18 8-21 victory over the world champion in the semi-fi
Suffering from the calf muscle strain, teen prodigy Ratchanok, current world No.2 and third seed, made history last year when she became the first Thai ever to advance to the showdown of the prestigious US$400,000 tournament in Birmingham, only going down to Dane Tine Baun in the thrilling gold-medal match.
Against world No.1 and top seeded Li Xuerui, who captured the Malaysia Open title early this year, Ratchanok performed well in the opening game to take a commanding 11-5 lead. Shortly after that, the Thai girl, restricted by the calf injury, became more prone with unforced mistakes, forcing the formidable Chinese to roar back with heavy attacks. Li took the thirlling first game 21-18 and stormed on to comfortably win the second 21-8 and book a final berth.
The Li's victory has not only stretched her win-loss record against the Thai darling to 5-2, but also gained a sweet revenge over Ratchanok, to whom she lost a hard-fought three-game thriller in the final of the last August's World Championships on her home soil.
With the Li's win, China is assured of winning the women's singles title as Li will take on Wang Shixian in the Sunday's all-Chinese showdown. World No.3 and fourth seeded Wang Shixian brushed off compatriot and world No.4 Wang Yihan 21-8 21-15 in the other semi-final encounter.
As for Ratchanok, the jinx remains with her as she has yet won a single title after she captured the world crown last August. Early this year, she came a whisker of winning the Korea Open, only to go down to Chinese Wang Yihan in the showdown.
