Bangkok, Thailand, 21 January: The Indian mixed doubles pair of Satvikasairaj Rankireddy and Ashwini Ponnappa clinched their berth in the quarter-finals of the ongoing Thailand Open with a convincing win on Thursday.
After winning the first set against Germany’s Mark Lumsfuss and Isabel Hertrich, the Indian pair were eliminated in the second game. However, Setviksraj and Ashwini shocked the German pair in the third set to win the 56-minute-long match (22-20, 14-21, 21-16).
Both Yonex bowed out of the Thailand Open after suffering a second-round loss last week, but Satwiksairaj and Ashwini made sure that they were able to get in line on their own this time.
Earlier in the day, Indian shuttler Sameer Verma performed brilliantly to advance to the quarter-finals of the tournament. Sameer defeated Denmark’s badminton player Rasmus Gamke in a 39-minute-long match by two consecutive sets (21-12, 21-9) to enter the next round.
Meanwhile, ace shuttler PV Sindhu, who defeated Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungfan on Tuesday, will take on Malaysia’s Kaison Selvadure later in the day. HS Prannoy will also be seen in action later on Thursday when he faces Daren LYE of Malaysia.
Earlier, Indian shuttler B Sai Praneeth was knocked out of the Thailand Open after testing positive for coronavirus. Badminton World Federation (BWF) said that Praneeth returned positive results on Monday and would remain in the hospital for at least 10 days.
Also, shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, who defeated Thailand’s Sittikom Thammasin by two consecutive sets (21-11, 21-11) to win the match lasted for 38 minutes on Tuesday, also pulled out of the event.