India Open GP Gold: Porntip Buranaprasertsuk topples Eriko Hirose in Women’s Singles semi-final
Thailand’s in-form shuttler, Porntip Buranaprasertsuk, has penetrated into Women’s Singles final after toppling Japan’s Eriko Hirose in the semi-final showdown at the 2011 India Open GP Gold, in Lucknow, India, on Saturday, December 24.
Porntip is currently World Number 12 and the second seed in the Women’s Singles draw of the event. She delivered terrific performance in the whole match against Hirose and finished it in straight games. The Thai took just 40 minutes to secure a place in
the final of the tournament.
The Thai started the first set in a shaky way in the start but recovered in the second half and took the set with a tight margin. However, Porntip showed no mercy to her opponent in the second set of this semi-final contest and won it with a remarkable margin.
In the first game, both shuttlers played at the similar level and reached at 3-3 when the Japanese started to build lead. She played aggressive game at the net and also executed wonderful defensive strokes to trouble her opponent. Until the one-minute break,
Hirose was moving ahead at 11-7.
After the break, the Japanese remained on track and reached at 15-9 when Porntip played elevated game and levelled the score by reaching at 15-15. The score remained close in the concluding phase until 20-20. At this breath-taking stage, Porntip played smart
badminton and score two consecutive points and won the set with a tight score of 22-20.
In the second game of this interesting contest, the Japanese again played well in the opening rallies but failed maintain her dominating run as Porntip levelled the score at 5-5. The in-form Thai shuttler controlled the pace of the game at this stage and
started to push Hirose on the back foot.
Porntip remained successful in dominating the game and continued her impressive run in the whole game. The anticipation and stroke placement of Thai shuttler was remarkable as she did not miss any chance to score points. Porntip bagged the second set with
a comfortable score of 21-15. The end result of this Women’s Singles semi-final battle was 22-20 and 21-15.
In the final show down, Porntip will take on her team-mate, Inthanon Ratchanok, who defeated Hong Kong’s Tsz Ka Chan in the other semi-final contest.
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