B Sai Praneeth became the sole Indian shuttler to reach quarterfinals at the Thailand Masters Super 300 badminton tournament in Bangkok on Thursday.
The 2019 World Championships bronze medallist, who defeated Mads Christophersen of Denmark in the previous round, faced former top 20 player Jeon Hyeok Jin of Korea in the men’s singles round of 16. The Indian won a thrilling opening game and decider to win 24-22, 7-21, 22-20 in 78 minutes. He had to save a match point in the decider before converting his first opportunity.
Earlier in the day, Kiran George and Ashmita Chaliha squandered match points on a tough day for Indian shuttlers in the round of 16 stage.
Kiran, who had won a thrilling match against Lee Chia-hao from Chinese Taipei in the previous round, was on the brink of reaching the men’s singles quarterfinals but went down 22-20, 25-21, 20-22 to third seed Lee Cheuk Yiu in the round of 16.
Chaliha, meanwhile, was part of a marathon deciding game against Danish sixth seed Line Højmark Kjaersfeldt in the round of 16, but couldn’t convert multiple match points and lost 21-19, 13-21, 27-29 in an hour and three minutes.
In the mixed doubles round of 16, India’s Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar lost 19-21, 16-21 to the Indonesian pair of Marsheilla Gischa Islami and Akbar Bintang Cahyono.
Bhatnaga teamed up with Sai Pratheek to take on Thailand’s Tanadon Punpanich and Wachirawit Sothon in the men’s doubles round of 16. In following the trend in Indian matches this week, they went down in a thriller 21-14 18-21 26-24. The Indian duo saved five match points from 15-20 down, they had a couple of match points themselves too but the Thai pair converted their 8th opportunity.
N Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor also lost their mixed doubles round of 16 match. They went down 11-21, 10-21 to Chinese sixth seeds Huang Dongping and Feng Yanzhe.
Sai Praneeth, who has struggled for consistency in recent months, will take on sixth seed Li Shi Feng from China for a place in the semifinals.
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