Xuerui Li beats Porntip Buranaprasertsuk in Women’s Singles semi-final of the Thailand Open GP Gold
China’s talented shuttler, Xuerui Li, has defeated Porntip Buranaprasertsuk of Thailand, in the Women’s Singles semi-final of the Thailand Open GP Gold 2011, held in Bangkok, on Saturday, June 11.
World Number 16 seed, Xuerui, took 64 minutes to beat the World Number nine, Porntip, in a well fought three-set battle.
It was a superb match between the two experienced shuttlers, who are known because of their high skills in the game. Both players put up a remarkable show of top-class badminton in front of a packed indoor stadium.
The match commenced in interesting fashion, as both ladies were looking to take an early advantage in the game. The local crowd was supporting Porntip, who was giving a tough time to her Chinese opponent. Xuerui was relying on her powerful smashes, whereas,
Porntip was playing with precision by moving her rival in all areas of the court.
The seventh seed Chinese tried to dominate the game against a spirited Porntip in the second-half of the first set. The cracking sound of powerful strokes was spreading out from the racquets of both shuttlers, who have extensive experience of the game at
the international level.
The Chinese clinched the first set with a 21-17 margin, in 22 minutes.
The fourth seed, Porntip, played to her full potential in the second set by dictating the pace of the bird and made her challenger move forward and backwards to reach the shuttlecock. Her variation was perfect, which earned her a good lead in the game. The
Chinese lost her focus in the second set and lost it by a margin of 17-21, in 24 minutes.
In the deciding game of this interesting encounter, Xuerui accelerated her speed from the start of the set and took a comfortable lead. Porntip could not handle the pace of the bird and lost many points, which helped Xuerui to win the final game by a margin
of 21-13, in 18 minutes. The end result of this 64-minute battle was 21-17, 17-21 and 21-13.
In the final showdown, Xuerui will be up against her team-mate and second seed, Yanjiao Jiang, who defeated Chinese Taipei’s Shao Chieh Cheng in the semi-final of the tournament.
Tags: