XD - Day 4 : JORDAN and OKTAVIANTI out
Sayaka TAKAHASHI (JPN) takes on Ratchanok INTANON (THA) [2], the seed Number 2 of 2021 French Open.
Since her very first come-back match in Paris this year, Intanon has shown a much better condition to the badminton world. At the first set, Takahashi dominated the score board 21/6. The Number 2 seed seemed helpless facing the multiple attack skills from the Japanese. She was apparently more concentrated for her second game. Much hard work to stay close to her opponent with only 1 point away several times, but the Nihon player reached the final point way sooner. 21/16, first surprise of the day: Intanon is out .
AN Seyoung (KOR) [4] battles it out against the brave Singapore player YEO Jia Min
The world Number 30 Yeo has beaten the Korean Number 1 once in the past and she would love to add one more win to the head-to-head against the 19-year-old Korean. An was just too steady in her global skill statistics….she was not impressed by the attacks from the Singaporean. 21/11, first set got into An’s pocket without too much suspense. Right next the pause, Yeo started to show her training results to the audience. 11/10, the Korean took a deep breath with only one point ahead. Yeo stuck to her strategy to aim the diagonal in order to save herself more time. This genuinely worked for the young Lion City player, but An kept her blood cold and got more confident for her attacks. 21/17, “ANcore” another match for the Korean.
The Thai Number 8 seed Busanan ONGBAMRUNGPHAN (THA) [8] goes toe to toe with THE Indian national top player
Sindhu tasted her first victory yesterday and she definitely was not ready to stop. Twice 21/14, the Number 8 seed from Thailand impressed the public with her precision and power smashes, but Sindhu was probably better prepared to solve her problems. Not being able to break through Sindhu’s wall-like defense, Ongbamrungphan started to make more mistakes. Another shining point for this match was Sindhu’s back hand punch clear skill. She always got herself out of trouble with this. Another semi final ticket was offered to …...Sindhu !
Akane YAMAGUCHI (JPN) [1] vs Pornpawee CHOCHUWONG (THA) [5]
They both wanted bad this victory and so did the fans. The silent killer Yamaguchi may have a higher world ranking than the Thai, but 3:3 historical record predicted somehow it would be a tough match between the two players. Right after the beginning of the first set, Chochuwong opened fire at all possible moments but Yamaguchi was too stubborn to give one single point away. Keeping a 5-6 advance over her opponent along the match , the Thai national player showed her great tenacity chasing the number one seed to 20:19, but Yamaguchi finally took the first game 21/19. On the second game, the Thai seemed to find her way to revenge, the big angle diagonal back court punch clear forced Yamaguhi to run fast, but the Thai was faster, waiting right in front of the net, a straight smash guaranteed her some points. 11/8 in favor of Chochuwong for the interval. And the lead lasted to the end of the second game. 21/19, this was meant to be a long match…. Final game, Yamaguchi’s attack mode was activated right at the first point. Her first hard smashes allowed her to get 5 points ahead at the interval. Yamaguchi has got it this time. 21/16. Last WS ticket was booked by the Japanese young player. “ I made too many mistakes in this match but my opponent did not. She really made the best of all my mistakes to limit my capacity. I should play more carefully next time.” The Thai confessed after the match. On the other hand, Yamaguchi also shared with us some of her thoughts about the match : “She tried very hard to stay in the game, I did have some uneasy feeling during some points, but I also got lots of support from the audience and I stayed strong until the last point of the match.”