Noppawan Emerges Thai Last Hope in Hua Hin Women's Circuit.
Noppawan Lertcheewakarn kept the Thai flag flying high in the US$25,000 Singha Cal-Comp & XYZ Printing ITF Women’s Circuit as she stormed into the semi-final after a 6-3 6-4 win over Indian qualifier Karman Kaur Thandi at the True Arena Hua Hin yesterday.
Noppawan rallied back from 0-3 in the second set to beat the Paris trained teenager in one hour and 32 minutes to become the only Thai left in the tournament as compatriot Bunyawit Thamchaiwat and Plobrung Plipuech were stopped only in the Thursday’s quarter-finals which were delayed for two hours because of drizzles.
“She is coming from the juniors and has big forehands. If you give her easy ball, she will whip back real hard from the forehand side,” said Noppawan in her second US$25,000 level semi-final this year.
“After I took the first set, I became tense for no reason just like on Wednesday. I let her dictate play and all of a sudden she went up 3-0. So I had to stick to my plan by taking some risks and it paid off,” added the former top 200 player who admitted she was under great intensity that she could not fall asleep on Wednesday’s night.
“I wanted to show good results at home but instead it put me under pressure and couldn’t play my game. Now I have a tough opponent waiting for me in the semi-final as she (Shiho Akita) has been in good form and just won a home tournament. I have to be really solid and stay aggressive,” Noppawan added.
The Japanese top seed Akita beat Chinese Gai Ao 6-3 6-3 to continue her winning streaks to 8-0 this month. The 26-year-old is in pursuit for her second ITF US$25,000 event win in 2016 after the victory in Noto earlier this month.
“It was a tough match. My opponent fought until the end and so did I. The key was I knew when to play aggressive and when not to play like that,” added the 301st ranked player who beat the Noppawan 7-6 (7-5) 6-4 in a US$25,000 circuit in Tsukuba last month.
“She’s always tough. She fights from start to end and is the kind of player who doesn’t give up. It’s going to be tough but I know what I have to do. ,” added Akita.
In the match of the tournament, third seed Kataryzna Kawa of Poland raised the level of her game when she needed it most as she narrowly edged out Thai hope Bunyawi Thamchaiwat in a marathon quarter-final that last over three hours. The big-hitting Kawa fought back from a break down at 3-4 in the decider to win the long tussles 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-6 (7-3).
Kawan will play Chinese Gao Xinyu who stemmed the run of local qualifier Plobrung by using her powerful baseline game to beat the Thai 6-1 6-3 in one hour and 35 minutes.
In the doubles semi-finals, top seed Laura Pigossi of Brazil and Yana Sizikova of Russia edged past South Korean Choi Ji-Hee and Kim Na Ri 7-5 1-6 12-10. They will line up the final round clash today against Chinese Wei Zhanlan and Zhao Qianqian who beat Indonesian fourth seed Beatrice Gumulya and Jessy Rompies 3-6 7-5 11-9.
