Thai qualifiers bounce out at Phuket Thailand Open

PHUKET: It wasn’t a good round for Thai hopefuls in the qualifying rounds of the US$190,000 Phuket Thailand Open women’s beach volleyball tournament in Karon, as all three qualifiers bounced out in Round 1 yesterday.

The pairing of Phupanee-Numwong went down in straight sets to the Canadian pairing of Valjas-MacTavish in 39 minutes (16-21, 21-23).

The Japanese pairing of Ozaki-Kaneda took just 33 minutes to down Thailand’s Arsa-Youpukdee (21-12, 21-10).

In the only other scheduled Round 1 match involving a Thai pair, Thanaporn-Teptasang forfeited their match against Canadians Broder-Cordonier.

Broder-Cordonier went on to advance to the fourth round with a third round win over Tanaka-Mizoe of Japan.

Other winners in the third round:

Mashkova-Tsimbalova (KAZ)

Bansley-Maloney (CAN)

Johns-Boulton (GBR)

Van der Hoeven-Van der Vlist (NED)

Ana Paula-Minello (BRA)

Ivy-Rutledge (USA)

Play resumes today. Admission to all matches throughout the tournament is free.

The Phuket Gazette and PGTV are proud sponsors of this event, the largest of the year on the women’s world circuit.