Thailand Masters: Kidambi advances to second round

Kidambi Srikanth opened his campaign at the Thailand Masters badminton tournament with a straight game win over Chinese Taipei’s Wang Tzu Wei here on Wednesday.

The Indian toiled hard for 45 minutes to get the better of Wang 22-20, 21-19 and enter the second round.

He will take on compatriot Mithun Manjunath who defeated Hong Kong’s Jason Gunawan 21-17, 21-8 in his first round men’s singles match.

S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian also started his campaign with a 21-14, 21-17 straight game win over Leong Jun Hao of Malaysia.

Sameer Verma made a first-round exit, going down to Hong Kong’s Angus Ng Ka Long 14-21 18-21 while Kiran George retired after trailing 17-21 in his round of 32 match against China’s Lei Lan Xi.

Malvika Bansod and Ashmita Chaliha cruised to the second round of the women’s singles event.

While Ashmita defeated Wong Ling Ching 21-10 21-16, Malivika got the better of Peru’s Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar 22-20 21-8. Malvika will next face Thailand’s Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who knocked out India’s Imad Farooqui Samiya 21-14 21-18.