Carolina Marin beats South Korea’s An Se-young to enter Thailand Open finals

Former World No 1 Carolina Marin on Saturday displayed a show of dominance as she breezed past South Korea’s An Se-young, scoring 21-19, 21-15 in straight sets. She has now made a place in the finals of the Thailand Open.

The Spanish fifth seed coming after a trophyless 2020, emphatically claimed the Thailand Open Super 1000 title last week. A supreme performance from her against Tai Tzu-ying – who she beat in the Super 1000 final – will come off as back-to-back titles for the Spaniard.

She came out on top last week against top-seeded Tai Tzu-ying, and continued her winning streak Saturday, maintaining her signature aggressive play against seventh-seeded An.

Marin spoke of the mental battle of motivating herself just days after being victorious.

“Sometimes it’s tough for the mindset when you win a tournament just three days ago and you have to start a tournament all over again,” the reigning Olympic champion said after the match.

Marin won in a quick fashion against Tzu-ying in their last encounter that ended in 21-18, 21-16. Tzu-ying on the other hand, came back after a first-set slump to beat homegrown star Ratchanok Intanon in a 12-21, 21-12, 23-21 nail-biter.

The tense third set was marked by extended rallies before the top-ranked Taiwanese athlete dealt the winning shot against her Thai opponent.

“In the final moments of the match I just enjoyed playing badminton on court again,” said Tai.

“I can say (Marin) is very fast and I’ll try to keep up.”

Also Read: PV Sindhu crashes out of Thailand Open after losing to Ratchanok Intanon

The men’s singles saw a huge upset when Denmark’s third-seeded Anders Antonsen was knocked out of the tournament by his compatriot, Hans-Kristian Vittinghus. Antonsen had survived a bruising game the day before against India’s Sameer Verma, and the impact showed Saturday as he appeared slower in responding to Vittinghus’ attacks, who won the game 21-19, 21-8.

Meanwhile, the Indian mixed doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa produced a spirited performance before going down narrowly to top seeds Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai in the semifinals of the Toyota Thailand Open here on Saturday.

Up against the world number three Thai pair, Satwik and Ashwini, who are ranked 36th, showed great skills and temperament as they scripted an extraordinary fightback after losing the opening game by a whisker. The game ended 22-20 18-21 21-12 after a 57-minute battle.