Ratchanok Intanon and Nitchaon Jindapol both got knocked out of the semi-finals of the Australian Open yesterday.
Fourth seed Ratchanok fell to top seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan 17-21, 15-21, while Nitchaon put up a brave challenge against second seed Chen Yufei but eventually lost to the Chinese 10-21, 25-23, 6-21.
The losses ended the Thai interest in the US$150,000 (approximately 4.8 million baht) BWF World Tour Super 300 event at Quaycentre in Sydney. World No.3 Okuhara and Chen will slug it out for the women's singles title.
Okuhara is chasing her first title of the year while second-ranked Chen will be bidding for her third after her victories at the All England Open and the Swiss Open. Chen was also a member of the Chinese team that won their 11th Sudirman Cup last month.
The men's singles title will be an all-Indonesian affair between Jonatan Christie and Anthony Sinisuka Ginting.
Third seed Christie upset top seed Chou Tien-chen of Taiwan 22-20, 13-21, 21-16 before second seed Ginting downed Wang Tzu-wei of Taiwan 21-17, 21-14.
Second seeds Yuki Fukushima and Sayaka Hirota of Japan will take on third seeds Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan of China for the women's doubles crown.
Top seeds Takeshi Kamura and Keigo Sonoda will play unseeded Ko Sung-Hyun and Shin Baek-Cheol of South Korea in the men's doubles title match.
The mixed doubles decider will feature top seeds Wang Yilyu and Huang Dongping of China against sixth seeds Praveen Jordan and Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia.
