Bangkok: India's Kiran George and Lakshya Sen entered the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Super 500 tournament here on Thursday.
Keralite Kiran continued his good run as he beat world No. 26 China's Weng Hong Yang in straight games.
Kiran, the world No. 59, took 39 minutes to beat his opponent 21-11, 21-19 in the men's singles round of 16 clash.
It is the first time that Kiran has reached the quarterfinals at a BWF World Tour Super 500 event.
The 2022 Odisha Open winner will face Toma Junior Popov of France in the last eight clash on Friday.
Laskhya got past China's Li Shifeng 21-17, 21-15 to book his spot in the quarterfinals.
However, it was the end of the road for the other Indians in the fray.
Saina Nehwal lost to China's He Bingjiao 11-21, 14-11 in the women's singles pre-quarterfinals, while 23-year-old Ashmita Chaliha went down 18-21, 13-21 to former Olympic and three-time world champion Carolina Marin of Spain round-of-16 match.
The Indian men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy lost to the Indonesia pair of Muhammad Shohibul Fikri and Bagas Maulana 26-24, 11-21, 17-21 in the 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.
(With inputs from PTI)
