Thailand were no match for powerful Turkey, which cruised to a straight-sets victory in their Volleyball Nations League match on Thursday night in Bangkok.
Turkey, ranked sixth in the world, prevailed 25-15, 25-15, 25-20 over the Thai women, as Move Forward Party leader and prospective prime minister Pita Limjaroenrat and his entourage cheered on the home side at Hua Mark Indoor Stadium.
The defeat followed a straight-sets loss to the Netherlands on Tuesday in the opener of the third week of VNL round-robin matches.
The only two wins in Thailand’s VNL 2023 campaign — against Canada and South Korea — came in the first week of the tournament in Antalya, Turkey.
The Thai women, ranked 14th in the world, entered this week’s Pool 6 competition in 13th place in the 16-team tournament.
Thailand have two more matches remaining in Pool 6. They will play Japan on Saturday and Brazil on Sunday. Both matches start at 8.30pm.
The preliminary phase features three weeks of competition, with each of the 16 teams playing 12 matches.
The top eight teams after the preliminary round qualify for the final phase, which will be held in Arlington, Texas from July 12-16.
Thailand made history last year when they entered the top-eight tournament for the first time. But this year they lost all their matches in the second week in Brazil where they were defeated by Germany, the USA, Serbia and Croatia.