Thailand Open 2012: Natnicha casts out Alisa Sapniti from qualifying round – Badminton Update
Thailand’s Natnicha Benchapanyanukul cleared first hurdle in SCG Thailand Open by overcoming her compatriot Alisa Sapniti in Women’s Singles qualifying round on June 5, 2012.
The victorious shuttler consumed energies for 37 minutes to read final results 17-21, 21-5 and 21-14.
Natnicha will now lock horns with Malaysian campaigner Yin Fun Lim in second stage of qualifying round.
Earlier in opening match, she made a tremendous comeback after losing first set and ensured her presence in the tournament.
The other Thai campaigner Alisa Sapniti lacked good finishing skills which resulted in her early exit from Thailand Open.
In first set, she ruled the court from very first shot to the last one and pushed her opponent in every corner of the court.
She earned four points in no time and then magnified the impact by reaching at 9-4 with couple of nonstop rallies.
Though, Natnicha made a swift progress to narrow the gap but still Alisa managed to reach at 11 before the mid-game break.
After the interval, she lost grip for a moment when score got equalled at 12-12 but then few back-to-back points took her to dominating position of 18-13.
This lead proved consequential as she did not find any trouble in registering concluding margin of 21-17.
However, her supremacy was short lived as the opposing Thai shuttler hammered her in nasty way. The talented Natnicha launched an intensive counterattack and levelled the match score.
She was bit sluggish in start but after 4-3 she gathered some pace and then never looked back. She pushed her rival on the back-foot with some power packed smashes and placed a formidable total of 11-3 until half time.
She maintained this acceleration after the interval and kept her competitor busy in just returning her masterly crafted strokes. She did not commit even a single mistake and wrapped the show with remarkable figure of 21-5.
Third and final set remained interesting only in first half as both compatriots matched each other’s skills and stayed equal at 8-8.
Later, Natnicha controlled overall pace of the game and raised her total to 17-10 which helped her to conclude the show with 21-14 score on the board.
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