Thailand surpasses China in prestigious badminton tournament

China is usually the overwhelming country in terms of quantity and quality in prestigious badminton tournaments, but in Finland this year, Thai players are showing their dominance.

Tennis player Ratchanok Intanon played extremely well at the Arctic Open - Photo: BWF

The Arctic Open (Finland) is part of the Super 500 tournament group, considered the most prestigious tournament group in the BWF system. And this year's tournament witnessed a spectacular change of position between Thailand and China.

This comment was made when the tournament had just passed the quarter-finals, to the surprise of badminton fans.

In both singles (men's and women's), China only contributed one name to the quarterfinals. That was the 8th seed Lu Guang Zu, but he was also defeated in the quarterfinals that took place on the night of October 10.

In the women's singles, their top expectations like Gao Fang Jie all stopped early in the second round.

On the contrary, Thai players are making a strong impression. Top seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn continued his impressive run of form by defeating Japanese opponent Watanabe in the quarterfinals, thereby booking a ticket to the semi-finals.

In the women's singles, Thailand has two representatives in the semi-finals, second seed Ratchanok Intanon and fourth seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan.

Intanon played extremely bravely in the tournament. She won all three matches 2-0, and did not let her opponent score 14 points in any game.

Thai players also played extremely well in the mixed doubles. They had 2 pairs in the semi-finals: Teeraratsakul - Taerattanachai and Puavaranukroh - Paewsampran.

The Teeraratsakul - Taerattanachai pair defeated a Chinese pair in the quarterfinals, before facing the No. 1 seeded pair of China, Jiang - Wei, in the semi-finals. Mixed doubles is also a rare event where Chinese players still showed stability.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thailand-surpasses-china-quoc-o-giai-cau-long-danh-gia-20251010215051716.htm