Dec 18 (Reuters) – South Korea’s An Se-young dominated Tomoka Miyazaki 21-9 21-6 at badminton’s World Tour Finals in Hangzhou on Thursday to continue her chase for a second title at the season finale.
Paris Olympics gold medallist An was too experienced for her 19-year-old opponent and used an array of strokes to seal the win and go top of Group A after two matches.
Reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan had a tougher day but battled hard in an intense 65-minute clash against Thailand’s Putri Kusuma Wardani.
The Thai player took the early lead after Yamaguchi let two game points slip away but the Japanese player fought back to claim a 22-24 21-19 21-13 victory.
Thailand’s Pornpawee Chochuwong bowed out of the tournament due to a recurrence of the same injury that caused her to retire from the Korea Open final against An in September.
“I was feeling fine when I came here, but after training day here I could feel it again,” Chochuwong said.
“I forced myself to play yesterday, but today my calf started swelling again.
“It’s very disappointing and I had a good start, but my body cannot go on and I need to rest.”
MAJOR UPSET
Japan’s Kodai Naraoka caused a major upset on the second day of the men’s competition at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre by defeating Asian Games gold medallist Li Shifeng 21-16 21-15, handing the Chinese player his second loss in the competition.
Li struggled in the face of relentless pressure from the Japanese player, who dominated at the net to secure the win and climb to the top of Group B.
Li, however, is bottom of the group with no points.
Later in the day, men’s world champion Shi Yuqi beat third seed Chou Tien-chen 21-11 19-21 21-15 to move up to second in the group.
Meanwhile, Paris silver medallist Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand lost to Christo Popov after the Frenchman claimed a 21-11 18-21 21-10 victory, while Denmark’s Anders Antonsen beat Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie 21-16 21-14.
Popov and Antonsen are now firmly placed to advance from the group stage at the expense of world number one Vitidsarn and Christie.
In the other women’s singles match, China’s second seed Wang Zhiyi beat Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon 21-17 21-19.
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena and Rohith Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford and Christian Radnedge)
