BWF World Championships 2022: Chaiwan creams Pai in women’s singles action

Phittayaporn Chaiwan of Thailand defeated Pai Yu-po of Chinese Taipei, 21-18, 21-13, in women’s singles first-round action at the TotalEnergies BWF World Championships 2022.

Chaiwan initially took a 9-4 headway at the start of the first game. But Pai fought back and briefly took the lead for a single point, 12-11.

It was close all throughout before Chaiwan reached a game point, 20-17.

The second game saw the right-hander from Lampang Province unleash two scoring runs to put the match away. With this, Chaiwan will be in an all-Thai skirmish against eighth seed Ratchanok Intanon.

Meanwhile, Vũ Thị Trang remained the only Vietnamese standing, tripping Kisona Selvaduray of Malaysia, 21-10, 21-17.

Trang dominated the first game with an 11-2 finish. She closed out the encouter with five unanswered points, 18-12; the winning point a Kisonay return that went wide.

Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark will test the 79th-ranked Vũ on the second round.

Finally, home counrty hero Okuhara Nozomi pulled out of the tournament, letting through Saina Nehwal of India to the third round. Nehwal bested Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong, 21-19, 21-9.

Over in women’s doubles, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand prevented an all-Malaysian second round after beating Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow, 21-11, 21-13.

The Indian pair will go up against Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan in the succeeding phase.

In men’s singles, Sitthikom Thammasin of Thailand clipped Ng Tze Yong of Malaysia, 21-9, 10-21, 21-19. The victor will collide with world number one Viktor Axelsen of Denmark.

Author Details

JP is an all-around sportswriter who covered the Bingo Bonanza Philippine Gold Grand Prix 2009. Aside from BWF badminton he follows football, basketball, and pro wrestling.