Thailand Masters: Ashmita Chaliha reaches her first-ever Super 300 Semis

Ashmita Chaliha is the lone Indian to book a place in the semi-final of the Thailand Masters Super 300 at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Friday.

She secured a comfortable victory over Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo of Indonesia in three games (21-14, 19-21, 21-13) and booked a place in the semis, which is her first-ever semis at a Super 300 tournament.

This is also India's first semi-final appearance in the women's singles category at a BWF World tour event (Super 300 and above) after four months. The last time was when PV Sindhu reached the semis of the Denmark Open in October 2023.

Ashmita made an outraging comeback in the first game when she won eleven points on the trot after her good attacking gameplay to clinch the game (21-14) from a losing position (10-14).

She was looking comfortable to take the match in two games and was leading 19-15, but her eagerness to book a place in the semis resulted in a loss of concentration and she lost the second game 19-21.

She didn't make any mistakes in the third game and clinched the decider comfortably to book her last four spots.

The Indian women's doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand's journey ended at the quarterfinal stage after a very close heartbreaking three-game (12-21, 21-17, 21-23) defeat against the fourth-seeded, world no.18 Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwi Puji Kusuma and Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi.

The Indian pair nullified another big lead, as they did in the quarterfinals, to take the final game to the deuce but in the final moments of the game, with the score at 21-22 against them, Treesa made a critical error, pushing a return out of bounds, resulting in the despair.

The win could have helped them reduce the gap with Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto in the race to Paris Rankings, where only one Indian pair can book their spot at this mega event.

In men's singles, Mithun Manjunath who was the only Indian in the men's singles category lost out in straight games (19-21,15-21) against Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands.