The Indian mixed doubles pair of SK Karunakaran and Aadya Variath overcame their first-round opponents to progress to the Round of 16 of the Thailand Open 2024 badminton tournament at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok on Tuesday.
SK Karunakaran and Aadya Variath, 42nd in the world rankings, beat world No. 155 Tanakorn Meechai and Fungfa Korpthammakit of Thailand in straight games 21-17, 21-16. The encounter lasted 33 minutes.
The Indian badminton players will take on Indonesian second-seeds Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari next.
Rivaldy and Mentari, ranked 15th in the world, were responsible for knocking out another Indian pair, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy. The Indian pair went down 21-12, 21-16 in their opening-round clash.
Meanwhile, world No. 84 Meiraba Luwang Maisnam was the only Indian to progress to the main draw through the qualifiers on Tuesday. He faced compatriot Shashwat Dalal in the first round of the qualifiers and won 21-15, 14-21, 16-21.
Meiraba then beat world No. 168 Kok Jing Hong of Malaysia in straight games 21-19, 21-9 to book his spot in the men’s singles main draw, where he will face compatriot HS Prannoy.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian and Kartikey Gulshan Kumar suffered first-round exits in the qualifiers while Ayush Shetty and Ravi’s campaigns wrapped up in the second round.
Nikki Rapria was the only Indian in the women’s singles qualifiers and suffered a first-round defeat at the hands of Saloni Samirbhai Mehta of Hong Kong China.
Vimalraj Annadurai and Mauryan Kathiravan, India’s only representatives in the men’s doubles qualifiers, also lost against Beh Chun Meng and Goh Boon Zhe of Malaysia and bowed out.
HS Prannoy and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty will start their campaigns in Bangkok from Wednesday.
2024-05-14 14:17:00
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