Thailand Open badminton: Kiran George defeats China's Shi Yuqi to enter pre-quarterfinals

Kiran George (Pic: Twitter/Badminton Association of India)

India's Kiran George registered an impressive straight-game win over world number 9 Shi Yuqi of China to storm into the pre-quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament here on Wednesday.

Ashmita Chaliha and Saina Nehwal also won their respective matches in women's singles.

On a day when Kidambi Srikanth and B Sai Praneeth made early exits, Odisha Open winner Kiran, who trained at the Prakash Padukone academy, notched up a 21-18 22-20 win over third seed Shi Yu Qi, who is a 2018 World Championships silver medallist.

Kiran will take on China's Weng Hong Yang next. He might want to take notes from HS Prannoy, who defeated Weng Hong Yang at Malaysia Masters final earlier this month.

Also Read: Malaysia Masters: HS Prannoy defeats China's Weng Hong Yang, claims men's singles title

In other matches, Ashmita, who came through the qualifiers, beat compatriot Malvika Bansod 17-21 14-21, while London Olympics bronze medallist Saina defeated Canada's Wen Yu Zhang 21-13 21-7.

Ashmita will next face Rio Olympic gold medallist Carolina Marin, seeded fourth, while Saina is likely to go against He Bing Jiao of China.

Srikanth, the 2021 world championships silver medallist, lost 8-21 21-16 14-21 against China's Weng Hong Yang.

Praneeth, who competed at the Tokyo Olympics went down 14-21 16-21 to France's Christo Popov in another match.

Orleans Masters winner Priyanshu Rajawat too couldn't cross the opening hurdle, going down 19-21 10-21 to Malaysia's Ng Tze Yong.

Former world number 11 Sameer Verma, who had won the Slovenia Open recently, went down 15-21 15-21 to Denmark's Magnus Johannesen.

Among other Indians, PV Sindhu, Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will play later in the day.

(With PTI inputs)