Hot Ratchanok marches into world final
World No 3 Ratchanok Intanon showed no mercy to India's PV Sindhu as she thrashed the 12th-ranked player 21-10 21-13 to reach her first BWF World Championships final in Guangzhou, China, yesterday.
A day after making history as the first Thai to reach the semi-finals following a three-game win over Spaniard left-hander Carolina Marin 21-18 20-22 21-15, the Thai teenager underlined her superiority over the Indian, whom she had beaten 21-12 21-6 in the semi-final of Indian Open.
The 18-year-old Thai did not face much of a challenge from Sindhu as she blasted a series of overhead smashes to win points and won the opening game hands down in just 13 minutes.
The second game was much easier for the Thai who quickly jumped to a 7-0 lead over the rusty Indian, the giant-killer of second seed Yihan Wang and seventh-seed Sixian Wang in the third and quarter-final rounds respectively.
Sindhu finally found her momentum to narrow the gap down to 10-14 but consistency deserted her game. At 12-20 Sindhu staved off the first match point with a down the line smash before the Thai closed out the match after 35 minutes on the next point with the fine smash.
Ratchanok will play Chinese world No 1 and London Olympics gold medallist Li Xuerui, who spent 31 minutes to beat South Korean Yeon Ju bae 21-5 21-11, in today’s final. Li leads Ratchanok 4-1 in their head-to-head meetings, with Ratchanok’s only win coming in their first encounter two years ago in the 2011 US Open second round.
This season alone, Ratchanok has reached four finals with two victories from the Indian Open Super Series in April and Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold in June. The other two finals appearances were in the All England and Swiss Open Grand Prix Gold. Li, 22, from Chongqing, has won 13 titles in her career. Her only crown this year came at the Indonesian Open in June.
