Bodin Issara yesterday returned from a near two-year suspension for fighting to compete in the SkyCity New Zealand Badminton Open.
The Thai doubles expert is playing in his first tournament since his suspension after an incident at the 2013 Canadian Open which went viral around the world and shocked thebadminton community.
It was a focused Issara, though, yesterday who, ironically, is partnering one of the opposition on that day in Nipitphon Puangpuapech. The 24-year-old concentrated throughout a thrilling match against Hee Chun Mak and Kok Siang Teo (Malaysia), and embraced his partner on smashing the winner on match point.
"I am just so happy to be back playing, to have my life back in badminton. I am very excited, this is my first match back after the suspension. I am very happy that we can win such a tough match.
"I am just back into training for a couple of months to get ready for playing. We will take this day by day, match by match in a very difficult tournament."
Try as they might, the combination of New Zealand's Oliver Leydon-Davis and Korea's Lee Jae Jin just couldn't get into their match against China's He Jiting and Yu Xiaoyu, going down in straight games 21-16, 21-15.
The minor shock was the defeat of the first and second seeds in the first round of the men's doubles, followed by a tense marathon of a match by the top seeds, with Puavaranukroh Dechapol and Kedren Kittinupong (Thailand) upsetting Danny Chrisnanta and Chayut Triyachart (Singapore) in three close games.
