Ratchanok Wins Second Straight Match to Reach Round of 16.
World No 4 Ratchanok Intanon rebounded from a slow start to underline her supremacy over Yip Pui Yin of Hong Kong with a 21-18 21-12 in their last women’s singles Group L round-robin competition at the Riocentro Pavilion 4 on Sunday.
Despite a superior record of 10-3 over the 34 th ranked opponent, Ratchanok found a tough challenge from Yip who relied on a series of powerful smashes to keep the Thai at bay. The former world champion fought back from 4-7 down at the beginning before she turned the tide to lead 11-10 by using repertoire of shots.
Both players were neck-and-neck until at the later stage of the first game where Yip started committing errors and lost the opener in 23 minutes.
In the second game, Ratchanok also found a tough fight from her opponent that saw them level at 5 all. But the more talented Thai took full charge from then on to wrap up the game in 17 minutes.
With two straight wins, Ratchanok finished atop of the Group and will head into the 16-field knock-out stage against Japanese world No 12 Akane Yamaguchi, winner of Group K.
