Top seed Pornpawee Chochuwong of Thailand marched into the quarter-finals in the girls singles in the SCG Badminton Asia Junior Championships at the CPB Badminton and Sports Science Training Center in Bangkok on Thursday after winning her second and third round matches.
Runners-up at the same championships last year the Thai hope is, however, wary of the threat Chinese threat she faces despite being the No. 1 seed. She faces's China's seventh seed Gao Fangjie for a place in the last four. The Chinese strolled past Vietnam's Tran Thi Phuong Thuy 21-4, 21-4 in the third round.
"I was runners-up last year but it is not an easy path for me to reach the last four let alone the final. This year's junior meet is much tougher than last year," said Pornpawee after her 21-13, 21-17 win over Korea's Kim Hyang-im in the third round. After a first round bye Pornpawee defeated Japan's Natsuki Oie in three sets 21-13, 19-21, 21-12 in 57 minutes.
Ranked No. 5 in Thailand, Pornpawee, 18, wants to carve out an illustrious career in badminton and her personal target is to be the World No 1 and win an Olympic medal.
She bagged two titles last year – winning the Sydney International in October and the TATA Open India International Challenge in December.
A couple of quarter-final achievements in other plus runners-up finishes in the Asian Junior meet and the Babolat Kharkiv International has given Pornpawee the confidence in her game.
This year Pornpawee was the runners-up in the Yonex German Junior in March where she lost to Japan's Natsuki Nadaira in the final and reached the quarter-finals in the Yonex Taiwan Open Grand Prix Gold. She was also in the Thailand team to the Badminton Asia Team Championships in India.
"I would not want to set a time frame but my dream is to be the world No 1…just like Ratchanok Intanon," said the soft spoken Pornpawee after her win over over Hyang-im.
"I have improved in my game overall but success does not come overnight. Still, there are several shortcomings that I need to work on to take my game to a higher level. This I believe will come through experience and international exposure."
Failure to reach the mixed team final was a disappointment for Pornpawee as the second seeded Thailand lost 3-1 to South Korea in the semi-final. Pornpawee lost her crucial women's singles match against Kim Ga Eun who won 17-21, 25-23, 21-19 in match which lasted a solid 74 minutes.
She, however, has put that behind her as she looks to continue her march in the individual event and give her home supporters something to cheer.
