Bangkok. Young Indian badminton players Mairaba Luwang Maisnam and star men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty continued their stellar performance and reached the quarter-finals of the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament here on Thursday.
A day after his upset win over compatriot HS Prannoy, 21-year-old Mairaba defeated Mads Christophersen of Denmark 21-14, 22-20 in the men’s singles second round match that lasted 50 minutes.
Mairaba will have to face a tough challenge from world champion and local contender Kunlavut Vitidsarn in the next round.
World number three Indian pair of Satwik and Chirag defeated 69th ranked Shei Sao Nan and Zheng Wei Han 21-16, 21-11 in their second round match. The Asian Games gold medal winning Indian pair will face the Malaysian pair of Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap in the next round.
The women’s doubles pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, who had qualified for the Olympics, also made it to the quarter-finals. Tanisha and Ashwini defeated Chinese Taipei pair of Hung In Ju and Lin Yu Pei 21-19, 21-17 in straight games. This fourth seeded pair of India will face the Chinese Taipei pair of Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chen in the next round.
Among other Indians, Ashmita Chaliha had to face defeat in a close contest. She lost 15-21, 21-12, 12-21 against top seed Han Yue of China in women’s singles. In mixed doubles, the pair of Satish Karunakaran and Aadya Wariath had to face defeat by 10-21, 17-21 against the pair of Rinov Rivaldi and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari. Panda sisters Rutaparna and Shwetaparna also lost 16-21, 13-21 against the Japanese pair of Rin Iwanaga and Kei Nakanishi in the second round.