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Nelly Korda is no longer defending her T Mobile Match Play Championship. The world number 1 fell short against world number 2 Jeeno Thitikul in the round-robin play. After a great game, Thitikul came out on top, and it looks like Korda's loss was due to her blunder on hole 17.
When Nelly Korda lost the game, everyone began to find out exactly where things went wrong for her. NELLYLEGION, a page on X (formerly Twitter), pointed out the turning point of the game. It, talked about Korda's difficult situation on the par-3 17th hole. During the last few shots, she was already at a significant disadvantage due to the uphill terrain, and she flubbed at that critical moment.
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This put the ball in an awkward position, ultimately leading to her loss. According to the NELLYLEGION page, this was the point at which Korda lost control of the game. As a result, she will not play on Sunday to defend her title this year. The X post about Korda stated:
"Flubbed her 2nd shot chip at the par 3, 17th from a brutal uphill lie… left it in the fringe. Needed the next one to drop, and it didn’t. Nelly will miss the weekend."
Following the loss of the world number one, only one of the top ten players will advance to the knockout round. Only Jeeno Thitikul, ranked second, has qualified among the eight top-ten players who were in this tournament. This is somewhat shocking, but Thitikul has an excellent explanation for it.
After defeating Nelly Korda, Jeeno Thitikul speaks about how rankings do not matter
Jeeno Thitikul is in fantastic form as she heads into the knockout round of the T-Mobile Match Play. Now that she has defeated Nelly Korda, her confidence is expected to be higher than before. And a glimpse of this confidence was even seen when she discussed the game in an ESPN interview.
Thitikul there claimed that rankings do not always matter. She explained how it is more important to consider the players on the field and who is in better shape to win. The world's number two stated:
"I don't think it's because of the top players not playing well, but I think because it's not a matter of the ranking here. Maybe the top players are playing well, but other players just play a little better, which is like hold the win."
Thitikul will now take on Nataliya Guseva in the knockout rounds. This round of 16 will take place on Saturday and will narrow down the tournament even more, leading to the top four players. These top four will compete for the top prize on Sunday in the semi-finals and championships.
Now that Korda has been ousted from the tournament, it is evident that a new champion will emerge. Due to this, the fans are now even more excited for the tournament.
