Boonsak Ponsana touches his best in Japan Open Super Series – Badminton feature
There are a few notable shuttlers that Thailand produced in the recent past in different categories of the game but Boonsak Ponsana stands tall among all of his contemporaries provided that he has been proving his mettle in major international events and
always posed a threat to top shuttlers in the arena of badminton.
In the last month’s Japan Open Super Series 2012, held in Tokyo, Ponsana was the one who made his presence felt to the world by playing at his best and proved that he has completely got rid of his back injury he got last year and that almost hampered his
chances to get back to his peak form.
However, a determined Ponsana made the difference by recovering with an incredible speed and proved his worth in Japan by reaching into the final of tournament. He played remarkable badminton all the way but failed to mount Lee Chong Wei in the final battle
and finished at the podium berth.
The World Number 21 Ponsana, entered into the tournament with one of the many players who were underdogs. However, he started his campaign in a dominating fashion and continued playing positive badminton in the whole competition and reached into the title
match where he bowed down to World Number One Chong Wei with a respectable margin.
The 30-year-old Ponsana was up against Indonesia’s in-form player Sony Dwi Kuncoro. The Thai shuttler had to dig into his reserves to push his rival on back foot. He remained successful in defeating Kuncoro in a hard-fought rubber set contest and reserved
his place into the next stage which was the round-of-16.
In the pre-quarter-final match, the in-form Ponsana locked horns against the local hero and fourth seeded Sho Sasaki who was the favourite to win the match. But Ponsana played on a different level as he spared no chance for Sasaki to unleash his powerful
smashes and eventually ended up the match in straight sets.
In the Men’s Singles quarter-final clash, Ponsana tamed another Japanese shuttler Kazumasa Sakai who participated in this event as a qualifier but put up staggering show and reached into the top-eight stage. Ponsana did not face any trouble and ousted him
in a dominating fashion with a lopsided margin on the board.
The semi-final contest was nail-biting when Ponsana took Hong Kong’s Hu Yun who defeated giants in his way to reach into the top-four stage. The Thai shuttler had to employ everything he had in his reserves to cope up with the spirited play of his opponent
and managed to overpower the Hong Kong shuttler in three games with a tight margin on score board.
Ponsana was up against Chong Wei in the title match of this Super Series tournament. He fought well and troubled his top seeded Malaysian opponent on different occasions in the battle but failed to control the pace of rallies when it mattered most. He lost
the final contest to the World Number One but in a respectable fashion.
The incredible performance that Ponsana delivered in Japan Open clearly indicates that growing age has not taken anything away from him so far. He has fully recovered from his back injury as he also won the Singapore Open Super Series just two months ago.
He is undeniably the best player of Thailand in the category of Men’s Singles.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
Tags: