YONEX Thailand Open: Koreans Strike Big
The strokeful Ratchanok Intanon was left bereft of ideas against teen prodigy An Se Young and exited the YONEX Thailand Open on quarterfinals day in straight games.
· DEV SUKUMAR
It was a great evening session for Korea, with An Se Young’s compatriots Choi Solgyu/Seo Seung Jae nixing the hopes of second seeds Mohammad Ahsan/Hendra Setiawan in men’s doubles.
Intanon and An Se Young had last faced off at the Sudirman Cup in May 2019, when An was building a reputation as an exciting young talent. Intanon had stopped her in straight games then, but today there was no respite for the Thai icon with the Korean stonewalling her every move.
The Thai is used to dominating the net, but today An got the shuttle to tumble off the tape time and again. The frustration of having her best shots returned also got to Intanon, and the second game was an uphill battle all the way.