ATHENS Olympics-bound doubles pair Sudket Prapakamol-Patapol Ngernsrisuk turned saviours for Thailand, clinching the winning point for a 3-1 win over England in a marathon tie for a place in the Thomas Cup quarter-finals at the Senayan Stadium yesterday. The Thais will meet fourth seeds South Korea today for a place in the semi-finals. Sudhet-Patapol, who lost to the Malaysian scratch combination of Wong Choong Hann-Chan Chong Ming two days ago, laboured for a 17-14, 15-9 win over England's Robert Blair-David Lindley after Thirayu Laohathaimongkol had put Thailand 2-1 ahead. The 18-year-old Thirayu defeated Andrew South 15-11, 15-6. In the first match, Boonsak Ponsana overcame a gritty Aamir Ghaffar 13-15, 15-12, 15-11 but the world 11th ranked pair of Anthony Clark-Nathan Robertson levelled the tie with a hard fought 15-6, 9-15, 15-10 win over Pramote Teerawiwatana-Tesana Panvisvas. While the Thais celebrated their achievement in securing a place in the last eight, the energy-sapping encounter against England is bound to work against them when they take on South Korea in the quarter-finals. Thailand's doubles coach Siripong Sirikul said that he expected a tough affair against England. “The doubles matches could have gone either way. If we had lost the first singles, it would be tougher for us to beat them,” he said. “We are looking forward to playing against South Korea. I hope our players can recover in time to give them a good fight. “South Korea will be missing one good doubles player (Ha Tae-kwon) but they will still be the favourites. But we have nothing to lose.” Completing the list of qualifiers for the last eight were defending champions Indonesia, Germany and Japan, who all posted easy 3-0 wins New Zealand, the United States and South Africa respectively. TheStar
