Treesa-Gayatri pair; Manjunath and Ashmita enter quarterfinals of Thailand Masters

Sixth seeds Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand entered the women’s doubles quarterfinals, but former world no.1 Kidambi Srikanth was upstaged by lower-ranked compatriot Mithun Manjunath on a mixed day for Indians at the Thailand Masters badminton tournament here on Thursday.

With the tough three-game win over Srikanth, Manjunath, along with Ashmita Chaliha in the women’s draw, progressed to the last-eight stage of the singles competition.

Treesa and Gayatri beat fellow Indians Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa 21-15 24-22 in their round of 16 match.

They will next be up against fourth seeds Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi of Indonesia.

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Manjunath, the current national champion, who is ranked 63rd in the world, had to sweat it out for 54 minutes to get the better of former world no.1 Srikanth 21-9 13-21 21-17 in a round of 16 match.

Manjunath will play Netherlands Mark Caljouw in the last-eight round.

However, it was curtains for the other Indian in the men’s singles draw, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian.

Subramanian, a qualifier, lost 9-21 11-21 to Chinese Taipei’s Chun-Yi Lin to exit the tournament.

Ashmita also made the next round, beating Chinese Taipei’s Yu Po Pai 21-12 15-21 21-17 in women’s singles.

But Malvika Bansod made an early exit in women’s singles, losing 22-24 7-21 to local shuttler Busanan Ongbamrungphan in the pre-quarters.