World No 1 women's singles junior Phittayaporn Chaiwan is out of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships after a shock defeat to Japan's unseeded in the quarter-finals in Bintaro, Jakarta on Friday.
Playing with a heavily strapped right ankle the Thai later injured her right knee which needed on-court medical treatment for nearly two minutes in the second game in her 8-21, 22-20, 7-21 defeat to the Japanese who is ranked 38.
"This is just not my tournament. I was the top seed but I had struggled in all my matches. However, I have no complaints but to move on to the coming tournaments like the Youth Olympics (Argentina) and the World Junior Champions (Canada)," said Phittayaporn who was previously known as Pattarasuda.
The Thai was the hot favourite after finishing runners-up to China's Han Yue in the same Badminton Asia Junior Championships at the same venue last year.
Now it is left to Mizui to stop the Chinese from an all-China final. In the semi-finals, the Japanese hope will face third seed Zhou Meng who stopped another Thai in the quarter-finals, defeating Benyapa Aimsaard 21-19, 21-18.
The other semi-final will be an all-China affair with second-seeded Wang Zhiyi facing fourth seed Wei Yaxin. Zhiyi ranked No 2, beat Korea's Lee So Yul 21-14, 21-18 in 34 minutes while Yaxin was taken the distance by Korea's before prevailing 21-16, 16-21, 21-12 in 51 minutes.
QUARTER-FINAL RESULTS
Women's singles
Hirari Mizui (Jpn) beat Phittayaporn Chaiwan (Tha) 21-8, 20-22, 21-7
Zhou Meng (Chn) beat Benyapa Aimsaard (Tha) 21-19, 21-8
Wang Zhiyi (Chn) beat Lee So Yul (Kor) 21-14, 21-18
Wei Yaxin (Chn) beat Park Ga-eun (Kor) 21-16, 16-21, 21-12
