BANGKOK (Thailand) : Indian women’s doubles pair Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa advanced to the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open 2024 badminton tournament on Thursday.
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa defeated Hung En-Tzu and Lin Yu-Pei of Chinese Taipei 21-19, 21-17. The fourth-seeded Indian pair had gotten a bye in the opening round.
Rutaparna and Swetaparna Panda also bowed out following a 21-16, 21-13 defeat at the hands of Japanese second seeds Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi in the women’s doubles second round.
Speaking about other fixtures, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty also advanced to the quarterfinals of the competition.
‘Sat-Chi’, as the duo is known popularly among fans, made it to the last eight- stages by defeating China’s Xie Hao Nan and Zeng Wei Han 21-16, 21-11.
Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will be aiming to add another Thailand Open title to their tally. They had earlier won it in 2019. Also, former junior world number two player Meiraba Luwang Maisnam continued his impressive run in the tournament. After upsetting his senior compatriot HS Prannoy in the previous round, he defeated world number 54 Mads Christensen of Denmark 21-14, 22-20 to advance to the quarterfinals. What was special about Meiraba’s win was that he overcame a massive deficit in the second game, fought his way back and preserved to clinch a victory.
The Indian women’s singles challenge came to an end as Ashmita Chaliha went down fighting to world number seven Han Yue of China, 15-21, 21-12, 12-21. She lost the first game and won the next to set up an exciting decider. But she lost the final game in a one-sided manner to lose this second-round match.
India’s mixed doubles pair of Sathish Kumar Karunakaran and Aadya Varinath lost 21-19, 21-17, to Indonesia’s Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas in their second-round game.
The Thailand Open is taking place in Bangkok from May 14 to May 19. (ANI)