Boonsak, Porntip shuttled out
Play
Thailand's challenge in the Hong Kong Open ended yesterday when Porntip Buranaprasertsuk and Boonsak Ponsana were stopped by their opponents in the semi-finals.
Porntip played superbly in the first game against world No 3 Wang Yihan of China in the women’s singles semi-final before the 2009 champion recovered to beat the Thai 17-21 21-15 21-13.
Wang, who had reached 23 Super Series final rounds, dominated play from 5-all in the deciding game with resilience and fast and furious attacks that saw the Thai become more and more erratic. The Chinese, who also reached the final last year, avenged her loss to the Thai last week in Shanghai where she went down in the quarter-finals 21-16 16-21 21-16.
Boonsak entered the semi-finals with little hope against world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, who has beaten him on 19 occasions. And just as the statistics suggested, the Thai could barely dented his rival and lasted just 33 minutes to lose 21-12 21-17.
Despite the losses, both Boonsak and Porntip are still in the race for the season-ending Super Series Finals, which will see the top eight players battle in Kuala Lumpur next month.
