[font=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thai pair create big sensation [/font] the Nation [font=arial, helvetica]Published on Apr 2, 2004 [/font] [font=arial, helvetica][BADMINTON] Two Thai pairs yesterday stormed their way into the quarter-finals of the US$200,000 Korea Open Badminton Championships at the Choongju Indoor Stadium, with Pramote Theerawiwat and Tessana Phanvissawat causing a sensation in the men’s doubles event. Against Danes Jens Eriksen and Martin Lundgaard, world-ranked number four who captured the All-England men’s doubles title in early March, Pramote and Tessana performed superbly to beat the last year’s Singapore Open champions in straight games 15-9 15-10. The Kingdom’s world number 12, who snatched the 2002 China Open crown, will next take on Chinese Sang Yang and Zheng Bo, who yesterday beat Germans Kristof Hopp and Thomas Tesche 15-3 15-6, in today’s quarter-finals. The mixed doubles team of Sudkhet Prapakamol and Saralee Thungthongkham also booked a place in the quarter-finals after they beat Australians Kate Wilson-Smith and Travis Denney 15-4 17-15. An uphill task, however, awaits the fifth-seeded Thais as they will challenge England’s Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms, the third seeds and world number four, to whom they lost in a hard-fought three-game thriller in the final round of the Thailand Open early this year. In the women’s doubles, Saralee partnered Sathinee Chankrajangwong to thrash South Korean qualifiers Kim Min-Joo and Song Yoo-Mi 15-5 15-9 in the first round on Wednesday. However, in a late second-round match yesterday, the Thai world number 11 pair went down to Chinese second seeds Yang Wei and Zhang Jiewen, silver medallists in this year’s All-England and Swiss Open, 6-16 5-15. Preechachan Wiriyanupappong[/font]
