Thailand Masters: Treesa-Gayatri pair enters women’s doubles second round, to face Tanisha-Ashwini

Indian pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand had to sweat it out to get the better of Hong Kong’s duo of Lok Lok Lui and Wing Yung NG as they entered the second round of the women’s doubles event at the Thailand Masters badminton tournament on Tuesday.

The sixth seeded Indian pair battled it out for one hour and 14 minutes to beat its first-round opponents 16-21, 21-10, 21-18.

Jolly and Gopichand will play the unseeded compatriots, Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa, in the next round.

Crasto and Ponnappa defeated Chinese Taipei duo of Ling Fang Hu and Xiao Min Lin 21-13, 21-17 in the opening round.

In men’s singles, India’s Sameer Verma and S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian qualified for the main draw after emerging winners in their first two qualifying matches.

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Verma first beat USA’s Howard Shu 21-9, 21-16 in the opening round of men’s singles qualification round before getting the better of Chinese Taipei’s Kuan Lin Kuo 16-21, 21-16, 21-15 in the next to enter the main draw.

Subramanian accounted for the veteran Indonesian Tommy Sugiarto 9-21, 21-17, 21-12 and then beat Korakrit Laotrakul of Thailand 20-22, 21-10, 21-14 to make it to the main draw.

Verma will play eight seed NG Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong in his opening round, while Subramanian will be up against Malaysia’s Jun Hao Leong.