Meiraba enters main draw of Thailand Open

Bangkok, May 14 (PTI) India’s Meiraba Luwang Maisnam progressed to the main draw of the men’s singles competition at the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament here on Tuesday.

The 21-year-old from Manipur, who trains at Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, beat compatriot Shashwat Dalal 15-21 21-14 21-16 and then notched up a 21-19 21-9 win over Malaysia’s Kok Jing Hong to enter the main draw.

He will face fellow Indian and fifth seed HS Prannoy on Wednesday.

There were four other Indians — S Sankar Muthusamy, Ayush Shetty, Kartikey Gulshan Kumar and Ravi — in men’s singles qualification round but they failed to make the cut after suffering losses in different stages.

Women’s singles player Nikki Rapria and men’s doubles pair of Vimalraj Annadurai and Mauryan Kathiravan also lost in the qualification stage.