Thailand's Boonsak storms into Asian badminton finals Sat Apr 1, 10:04 AM ET Thailand's Boonsak Ponsana has stormed into the men's singles final of the Asian Badminton Championship, setting up a showdown with the Malaysian top seed. Boonsak, a law student from Bangkok, delivered a hard-fought victory over China's Chen Yu in their semi-final clash at the Johor Baru indoor stadium. He will battle Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei for the singles crown. Chong Wei, the home crowd's obvious favourite, dismissed South Korea's Park Sung Hwan in the other semi-final, and his performance throughout the event has marked him as the clear favourite. But the Malaysian underplayed the hype on Saturday, saying the Thai shuttler would be a tough opponent. "Boonsak has beaten all the top players in the world before, which means he has the quality. Add that to his never-say-die attitude on the court and I have to be on my toes tomorrow," Lee said. "No doubts -- he is a good player and the match could go either way." The two last met four months ago at the Southeast Asian Games team event in Manila, and it was Lee who triumphed in three games under the 15-point format. But for Boonsak, that match is already ancient history. "The Manila meeting was the first time we played each other. But that was under different circumstances. Tomorrow would be different again," Boonsak said. "There is my personal target to achieve, and having made it to the first final of the year in a major meet, I want to do well. Hopefully the Malaysian crowd would be behind me just like they had been in my previous matches." Malaysia's winning ways continued in the men's doubles draw, with the unseeded 2004 World Junior champion pair of Hoon Thien How and Tan Boon Heong slated to face veterans Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah in the final. Hoon and Tan overcame the South Korean pair of Hwang Ji Man and Jung Tae Keuk in their semi-final clash, while Choong and Lee brushed aside the second seed Luluk Hadiyanto and Alven Yulianto of Indonesia in the other semi-final. In the women's singles, defending champion Wang Chen of Hong Kong will go for her third title after booking her place in the final with an easy straight games win over China's Jiang Yanjia. Wang, who is also the tournament's top seed, won the title in Jakarta in 2003 and again in Hyderabad, India last year. In the final, she will face her old foe Mori Kaori of Japan in a repeat of last year's showdown where the China-born shuttler won in straight games under the 15-point format. "It has been a tough tournament, especially my victory over China's Jiang Yanjia in the semis. I expect Kaori to be just as tough an opponent in the final. She is a fighter and a very steady player too," Wang said. "So patience is the key to victory." -------------- last time i saw boonsak was him against jin chen of 06 china master which boonsak look sharp. I view boonsak had made improvement since the athen olympic. He brings a different flavor of MS which is good to watch instead chenhong, LD, PG all the time If boonsak wins, it would give a big boost of badminton to thailand. Imagine hearing crowds yelling 'BOON-SAK-BOON-SAK'
A good start for the World Champion. I believe that when they are in form, only 4 pairs have the ability to beat Nova/Butet: Zhang Jun/Gao Ling (no 1 nemesis), Nathan Robertson/Gail Emms (used to be able to beat them comfortably, but have not been able to beat them since Nathan returned from his injury...with 2 losses in the HK Open quarter-final and All England semi-final), Xie Zhongbo/Zhang Yawen (slowly emerging to be a real world class XD pair), and Lee Jae Jin/Lee Hyo Jung (haven't really met them in the recent months...but Nova/Butet has lost a number of times to them early to mid of last year).
