India’s Kiran Geroge moves to quarters, Ashmita bows out of Thailand Open

Bangkok, Jun 1 (PTI) India’s Kiran George continued his good run as he cruised into the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament, beating world number 26 China’s Weng Hong Yang in straight games here on Thursday. Kiran, the world number 59, took 39 minutes to beat his higher ranked Chinese opponent 21-11, 21-19 in the men’s singles round of 16 clash. It is the first time that Kiran has reached the quarterfinal at a BWF World Tour Super 500 event. The 2022 Odisha Open winner will face the winner of the match between Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong and Toma Junior Popov of France in last eight clash on Friday.

However, it was the end of the road for 23-year-old Ashmita Chaliha, who went down 18-21 13-21 to former Olympic and three-time World Champion Carolina Marin of Spain.
Later in the day, Saina Nehwal, Lakshya Sen and the men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will play their respective pre-quarterfinals. The BWF World Tour is divided into six levels, namely World Tour Finals, four Super 1000, six Super 750, seven Super 500, and 11 Super 300 in order. One other category of tournament, the BWF Tour Super 100 level, also offers ranking points.The Super 500 is a Grade 2 (level 4) event in the BWF tournament ranking system.