Selena Piek and Jacco Arends of the Neterlands are through to the quarter-finals at Thailand Masters, a Super 300 tournament of the new HSBC BWF Tour.
Piek and Arends played against Tinn Isriyanet and Pacharapun Chochuwong from Thailand in the second round earlier on Thursday. 39 minutes of play resulted in the score ‘21-18, 21-17’ in Dutch favor.
- We got off to a good start moving very well on court. We managed to take control over half and front court which made them a bit insecure, Piek said to Badminton Europe.
- Furthermore, we tried to be active all the time, taking the initiative early in the rallies and forcing them playing the lift to us.
French Open return game in the quarter-final
The fourth seeded Dutch duo will face another Thai pair in the quarter-final. Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Puttita Supajirakul are seeded 7th and the Dutch want revenge from their defeat against them at French Open in 2017.
- Tomorrow, will be a tough match as we lost during our last encounter at the French Open. It’s a very good Thai pair so we need to prepare very well if we want to beat them. They are playing on home soil but we look forward to bring out a good fight against them.
- Our preparations were a little different from the usual as we had the Christmas holidays and New Years in between but we tried to prepare ourselves as much as possible. Looking at the draw I was hoping to come through to the quarters but we are always hungry for more.
European results
The only other Europeans that will be joining Piek and Arends on the quarter-final day is the French mixed doubles of Ronan Labar and Audrey Fontaine. They went through in two sets earlier on Thursday and are seeded to go to the final.
The other French mixed doubles, Kersaudy and Palermo faced a defeat today, as well did the German women’s doubles Johanna Goliszewski and Lara Kaepplein including the Dutch/Swedish combined men’s doubles of Robin Tabeling and Richard Eidestedt.
Misha Zilberman from Israel is still in the run for a spot in the men’s singles quarter-final as he is playing his second round against Hashiru Shimono from Japan later on Thursday.