Thailand’s world No.5 Ratchanok Intanon recovered in style from a disappointing first game to register a hard-fought victory and clinch a semi-final place at the India Open in New Delhi on Friday.
In the women’s singles quarter-finals of the Superseries event, fourth seed Ratchanok defeated world No.9 Tai Tzu Ying of Taiwan 2-1 (12-21, 21-14, 22-20) in 58 minutes. It was her seventh win over Tai in 12 meetings.
The 21-year-old Thai faces either world No.11 PV Sindhu of India or No.15 Bae Yeon-Ju of South Korea in today’s semi-finals.
“Hello, semi-final,” Ratchanok said in a post on her Instagram account.
Before the tournament, Ratchanok had set herself the target of reaching the semi-finals. Last year, the Thai ace entered the final where she lost to Saina Nehwal of India in straight sets.
In another quarter-final yesterday, third seed Li Xuerui beat her Chinese compatriot Wang Shixian 22-20, 12-21, 21-17.
World No.2 Li takes on the winner between local favourite Nehwal and Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea.
Thailand received another boost when their mixed doubles pair of Bodin Issara and Savitree Amitrapai surged ahead to the semi-finals.
Bodin and Savitree, ranked No.18 in the world, helped their own cause of earning a ticket to the 2016 Olympic Games by defeating Liu Yuchen and Tang Jinhua of China 15-21, 21-18, 21-18 in the quarter-finals.
They meet the winners of the clash between Joachim Nielsen and Chritinna Pedersen of Denmark and Indonesia’s Riky Widianto and Puspita Dili in the semi-finals.
Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul, president of the Badminton Association of Thailand, said that, apart from Ratchannok, she had high hopes of more Thai players making it to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
She expected to have Thai shuttlers in all the five events that will be contested at the Games as there is still one month to go before the qualifying cut-off date.
Thailand have never won an Olympic medal in badminton.
Meanwhile, badminton players and others linked to the sport face possible lifetime bans for betting on or fixing matches under toughened rules announced by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) recently.
It will also be considered an offence for badminton players, officials and referees to fail to report knowledge of illegal betting or related infractions, to hide evidence, or refuse to cooperate with investigations, the BWF said.
“BWF is committed to clean sport and this code is for everyone in badminton,” the organisation’s secretary general Thomas Lund said in a statement.
“It covers almost all people associated with our sport and addresses circumstances that have come about with the evolution of badminton.”
He added: “The integrity of our sport is clearly a critical area which we take very seriously.”
Badminton officials raised the alarm about betting after Danish players Hans-Kristian Vittinghus and Kim Astrup said in October that they received offers to throw matches.
They said the offers were made by a Malaysian man who claimed to have previously fixed matches in the Singapore Open and Thomas Cup.
The new code prescribes tougher sanctions for violations.
“In serious cases, this could mean a lifetime ban from badminton,” the BWF statement said.
Match-fixing and illegal betting have emerged as concerns in several sports. Bangkok Post/Agencies