Thai duo, Ratchanok shine

Local No 1 and this year’s Singapore Open champion Boonsak found world No 3 and third-seeded Chen Long from China too strong, going down tamely 21-12 21-17 in their do-or-die Group E showdown for a place in the knockout round. The hard-attacking shuttler from Hubei improved his head-to-head record against the former Thailand Open champion to 2-2. The Thai’s loss snuffed out Boonsak’s dream of bettering his fourth place at Athens 2004 in this, his fourth and final Olympic Games.

Teenage titan and world No 10 Ratchanok Inthanon revived Thai pride by thrashing inexperienced Thilini Jayasinghe from Sri Lanka 21-13 21-5 in the women’s singles Group M preliminaries.

One of only three players in the group, three-time world junior champion Ratchanok needs a win in her next match against lower-ranked Portuguese Telma Santos to book her berth in the last-16 knockout phase. The 17-year-old from Yasothorn plays Santos tonight at 7.42pm Bangkok time. “My first match here was not that good. I think I played nervously at the start,” said Ratchanok after winning her first match on Olympic debut.

Thailand’s big surprise came in the men’s doubles when world No 19 Bodin and Maneepong made a stunning start to beat No 6 Ahsan Mohammad and Bona Septano from Indonesia, 21-11 21-16 in Group B. The Thai pairing continued their terrific form to shock world No 4 Ko Sung-hyun and Yoo Yeon-seong from South Korea, 21-15 21-14. The Thais have made sure of a berth in the knockout.