Dec 18 (Reuters) - South Korea's An Se-young dominated Tomoka Miyazaki 21-9 21-6 at badminton's World Tour Finals in Hangzhou on Thursday to continue her chase for a second title at the season finale.
Paris Olympics gold medallist An was too experienced for her 19-year-old opponent and used an array of strokes to seal the win and go top of Group A after two matches.
Reigning world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan had a tougher day but battled hard in an intense 65-minute clash against Thailand's Putri Kusuma Wardani.
The Thai player took the early lead after Yamaguchi let two game points slip away but the Japanese player fought back to claim a 22-24 21-19 21-13 victory.
Thailand's Pornpawee Chochuwong bowed out of the tournament due to a recurrence of the same injury that caused her to retire from the Korea Open final against An in September.
"I was feeling fine when I came here, but after training day here I could feel it again," Chochuwong said.
"I forced myself to play yesterday, but today my calf started swelling again.
"It’s very disappointing and I had a good start, but my body cannot go on and I need to rest."
Japan's Kodai Naraoka caused a major upset on the second day of the men's competition at the Hangzhou Olympic Sports Centre by defeating Asian Games gold medalist Li Shifeng 21-16 21-15, handing the Chinese player his second loss in the competition.
Li struggled in the face of relentless pressure from the Japanese player, who dominated at the net to secure the win and climb to the top of Group B.
Shi Yuqi takes on Chou Tien-chen later in the group.
Paris silver medallist Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand is in action against France's Christo Popov, while Denmark's Anders Antonsen faces Indonesia's Jonatan Christie.
In women's singles, Ratchanok Intanon plays Wang Zhiyi.
(Reporting by Karan Prashant Saxena in Bengaluru; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
