Pi drubs Francisca to exact revenge

Pi drubs Francisca to exact revenge

Agence France-Presse, Bangkok

Top seed Pi Hongyan of France whitewashed Francisca Haris 11-0 11-0 on Friday in the Thailand Open, avenging in spectacular fashion her defeat to the diminutive Indonesian in last December's Indonesian Open.

There was none of the vociferous crowd support that had carried Francisca to a 5-11, 11-7, 13-12 victory in Senayan, Central Jakarta, as Pi raced through the match.

She is one of three Europeans in the semifinals -- all of them Chinese born.

Pi faces Germany's Xu Huaiwen, the third seed, who also earned an easy two-set victory by beating the last Thai in the field, seventh seed Salakjit Ponsana, 11-7 11-6.

Japan's fifth seed Kanako Yonekura had an even easier time ousting Singapore's Xing Aiying 11-4 11-6, and will face second seed Yao Jie of the Netherlands who saw off Korea's Seo Yoon Hee.

In the men's, champion Boonsak Ponsana of Thailand survived his second straight three-game nailbiter to edge into a semifinal showdown against top seeded Dane Kenneth Jonassen.

Local hero Boonsak lost the second game to Malaysia's ninth- seed Mohamed Roslin Hashim but the Olympic semifinalist stormed back in the clincher to take the match 15-8 11-15 15-9.

The Thai had breezed through his first matches but struggled in the quarters against Singapore's Yen Hui Hendrick Lee who had also taken him to three sets before capitulating.

Jonassen made swift work of Hong Kong fifth seed Wei Ng 15-9 15-8 to book his place in the semis.

Third seed Muhd Hafiz B Hashim of Malaysia dispatched Germany's Bjoern Joppien 15-9 15-8, setting up a clash with 12th seed Singaporean Ronald Susilo, who upset number two Xia Xuanze of China.

Susilo survived a rollercoaster three-set match, losing the first 10-15 but surging back to take the next two 15-10 and 15-6.