Thailand Open: Meiraba, Satwik-Chirag enter quarterfinals

Bangkok: Continuing their splendid run, young Indian shuttler Meiraba Luwang Maisnam and star men's doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty advanced to the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Super 500 here on Thursday.

A day after his upset win over compatriot H S Prannoy, the 21-year-old Meiraba, who trains at the Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, eliminated Denmark's Mads Christophersen 21-14, 22-20 in a second-round men's singles clash that lasted 50 minutes.

Meiraba, who had won the Iran Fajr International and India International in 2022, will face a litmus test when he takes on world champion and local hero Kunlavut Vitidsarn next.

World No. 3 Indian pair of Satwik and Chirag defeated Xie Sao Nan and Zeng Wei Han, ranked 69th, 21-16, 21-11 in their second round match.

The Asian Games gold medallists will next face Malaysia's Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap.

Olympic-bound women's pair of Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa beat Chinese Taipei's Hung En-Tzu and Lin Yu-Pei 21-19, 21-17 to also reach the quarterfinals. The fourth-seeded Indian combination will meet sixth seeds Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chan of Taipei next.

Among other Indians, Ashmita Chaliha's gruelling fight ended in a narrow loss as she went down 15-21, 21-12, 12-21 to top-seeded Chinese Han Yue in women's singles.

Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath lost 10-21, 17-21 to Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari to bow out of the mixed doubles competition.

Panda sisters -- Rutaparna and Swetaparna -- failed to cross the second round, losing 16-21, 13-21 to Japan's Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi.