India’s Kiran George continued his stunning run at the Thailand Open while Lakshya Sen also reached the quarterfinal in men’s singles with a good win. However top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty were knocked out in the second round in Bangkok on Thursday.
In other matches, Saina Nehwal and Ashmita Chaliha bowed out ending India’s campaign in women’s singles at the Super 500 tournament.
Kiran, who had to qualify for the main draw by winning two matches on Tuesday, cruised into the quarterfinals beating world No 26 Weng Hong Yang. World No 59 Kiran took 39 minutes to beat his higher ranked opponent 21-11, 21-19 in the men’s singles round of 16 clash.
Kiran had knocked out world No 9 Shi Yu Qi in the first round. He found his range again, getting the better of the Chinese who beat Kidambi Srikanth in the first round and was the runner up to HS Prannoy at the Malaysia Masters last week.
This is Kiran’s first quarterfinal at a BWF World Tour Super 500 event. The 2022 Odisha Open winner will face Toma Junior Popov of France for a place in the semifinal.
THERE’S NO STOPPING THIS GUY ��
Continuing his fine run Kiran defeated Weng Hong Yang ���� 21-11, 21-19 to enter his first-ever quarterfinal at a BWF World Tour Super 500 event ����
Keep it up champ! ��
��: @badmintonphoto #ThailandOpen2023 #IndiaontheRise#Badminton pic.twitter.com/wHUxqx5mdA
– BAI Media (@BAI_Media) June 1, 2023
Later in the day, Lakshya Sen reached the quarterfinal with a solid, straight-games win over fourth seed and All England champion Li Shi Feng. The Indian, who has fallen down in the rankings to the 20s after an indifferent few months, played a good match to beat the Chinese player 21-17, 21-15.
He will next take on Malaysia’s Leong Jun Hao, a qualifier, and will look to make a deep run after exiting early last week.
However, there was big disappointment for India as top seeds Satwik and Chirag went down in the second round against a pair they had not lost to before. Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana beat them 24-26, 21-11, 21-17 after a marathon match.
Satwik and Chirag, making a comeback after missing the tournament last week, had to dig deep to beat Denmark’s Rasmus Kjaer and Frederik Sogaard in the first round as well.
Against the Indonesians, they clinched the first game that went to 26 points after losing their lead and game points. However, they couldn’t repeat that in the next two games as the Indonesians kept up the pressure.
The world No 4 pair will now look to regroup before the Singapore Open Super 750 next week.
It was also the end of the road for 23-year-old Ashmita Chaliha, who went down 18-21, 13-21 to Carolina Marin, and Saina Nehwal, who lost to He Bing Jiao 21-11, 21-14.
On Wednesday, there was a spate of early losses for India such as PV Sindhu and Kidambi Srikanth. This is the second in the five straight weeks of top-flight action on the BWF Tour marking the start of Olympic qualification cycle.
