Napaporn Finally Find Her Form

  The top seed, after five straight first round exits, finally won her first match in more than a month. She was also the pre-tournament's favourites in the first two circuits in Khon Kaen but unfortunately was stopped at round one by unfancied players.

  Napaporn, who plans to wave good-bye to her career at the end of the year, lines up a second round clash with Sanaa Bhambri of India, who needed three sets to beat Venise Wing-Yau Chan of Hong Kong 6-4 0-6 6-4. 

  She along with fellow seeded players in the top four were all save through to the second round. Second-seeded Rushmi Chakravarthi of India ousted Denise Dy of the Philippines 6-4 6-1, third-seeded Liang Chen of China laboured to move past Anna Movsisyan of Armenia 6-4 1-6 6-4 while fourth-seeded Chen Yi of Taiwan downed local Varatchaya Wongteanchai 7-6 (7-4) 6-3.

  Apart from Napaporn, three other Thais also advanced into the second round including 15-year-old sensation Noppawan Lertcheewakarn who used her double fisted grounstrokes to pick off Lutfiana-Aris Budiharto of Indonesia  6-4 6-2. Qualifier Varanya  Vijuksanaboon was on fire as she crushed over Eriko Mizuno of Japan  6-0 6-1 while unknown Kanyapat Narattana, a wildcard holder, surprised Haruka Fujishiro of Japan with a  6-1 6-0 score line.

  Three seeds faltered yesterday - fifth-seeded Huang Lei of China lost to countrywoman Lu Jia Xiang 6-2 5-7 4-6, seventh-seeded Cassandra Barr of Australia went down to Shao Shi-Tong of China 1-6 3-6 and  eighth-seeded Ankita Bhambri of India fell to Keren Shlomo of Israel  5-7 6-1 4-6.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation