Ratchanok on the winning note

By The Nation

 

 

Fresh from claiming her seventh World Tour Super 500 title in Kulala Lumpur on Sunday,   Ratchanok Intanon kept her winning streaks going a she toppled American Beiwen Zhang 21-7 21-13 in the first round of the  Daihatsu Indonesia Masters in Jakarta yesterday.
 

Ratchanok, in her second event of the season, went onto the court against the world No 11 with a 2-0 head-to-head record and with five match wins from the Malaysia Masters.

 

The first game, Ratchanok started off sluggishly and fell behind at 5-6. But once she found her momentum, she dictated play with impressive shot selections to reel off 14 points in a row for a huge lead at 19-6.

 

The Thai allowed her opponent to stop the bleed at 7-19 before landing the game easily 21-7 in just 11 minutes.

 

After slowing the American to lead  11-10 at the interval, Ratchanok raised her level and passed her first hurdle hands-down in just 23 minutes.

 

Also moving forward was Thai No 2 and world No 12 Nitchaon Jindapol, winner of the Thailand Masters a fortnight ago. She recovered from a second game lapse to beat world No 13 Sayaka Sato of Japan 22-20 12-21 21-9. The Phuket-based finally returned the favour to the Japanese for the first time in five years after two straight defeats at the Thailand Open in 2015 and Indonesia Open last June.

 

Nitchaon will play world No 6 Sung Ji Hyun of South Korea, a 21-17 21-17 winner over Thai No 3 Busanan Ongbamrungphan. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/sports/30337076

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-01-25

Graceful speed and power,

good luck to her on a winning streak,