Thailand’s Badminton Star Ratchanok Out of HSBC BWF World Tour Finals

Thailand’s Badminton Star Ratchanok Intanon has suffered a shock defeat at the hands of her Thai compatriot Pornpawee Chochuwong at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2020 which started on Wednesday.

Pornpawee, ranked fifth in the women’s singles category, took 62 minutes to upset World No.3 Ratchanok 15-21, 21-11, 21-18 in Group B that included No.2 Tai Tzu-ying of Taiwan and No. 10 Pusarly V Sindhu of India.

The event at Impact Muang Thong Arena ends on Sunday, with mixed doubles pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai aiming to make a clean sweep of three titles.

Dechapol and Sapsiree, ranked third, won the Yonex Thailand Open on Jan 17 and Toyota Thailand Open the following Sunday.

Meanwhile,  Thailand’s Mixed doubles pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai aim to make a clean sweep of three titles with a triumph at the HSBC BWF World Tour Finals 2020 which started on Wednesday.

The season finale is the third and last behind-closed-doors event in three consecutive weeks in the Asian leg at Impact Arena, Muang Thong Thani.

Third badminton crown

Red-hot home stars Dechapol and Sapsiree won the first two events — the Yonex Thailand Open and Toyota Thailand Open — and are in confident mood to claim their third crown in a row.

The third-seeded Thais were on Tuesday drawn into Group A of the World Tour Finals with top-seeded Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith of England, Indonesia’s Praveen Jordan/Melati Daeva Oktavianti, and South Korea’s Seo Seung-Jae/Chae Yu-Jung.

In Group B are second seeds Mark Lamsfuss/Isabel Herttrich of Germany, fourth seeds Thom Gicquel/Delphine Delrue of France, Indonesia’s Hafiz Faizal/Gloria Emanuelle Widjaya, and Malaysia’s Goh Soon Huat/Lai Shevon Jemie.

In Wednesday’s other Group B match, second seeds Kim So-Yeong/Kong Hee-Yong of South Korea are up against Linda Elfer/Isabel Herttrich of Germany.

The men’s Badminton singles, Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen, who is unbeaten over the past fortnight, faces Taiwan’s world No.2 Chou Tien-chen, Indonesia’s Anthony Ginting and Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia in Group A.

Group B has Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, Wang Tzu-Wei (Taiwan), Kidambi Srikanth (India) and Ng Ka Long Angus (Hong Kong).