Badminton
Thailand Masters: Ashwini-Tanisha, Gayatri-Treesa to clash in Round of 16
Ashwini and Tanisha registered a comfortable straight-game win, while Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand came back from a game down to register a three-game win in the first round.
Tanisha Crasto (left) and Ashwini Ponnappa, and Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly will clash in the quarterfinals of Thailand Masters.
The Indian women's doubles pairings of Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto, and Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand won their respective first-round matches at Thailand Masters Super 300 in Bangkok on Tuesday. In the pre-quarterfinals, the two pairings will confront each other for a spot in the quarterfinals.
The world no. 21, Ashwini and Tanisha registered a comfortable straight game (21-13, 31-17) win against a much lower-ranked Chinese Taipei pair of Lin Xiao Min and Hu Ling Fang.
They were looking solid in both games with Tanisha's deception at the net and Ashwini's half smashes from the backcourt troubling Lin and Hu, who made too many unforced errors to make it easier for the Indian duo.
Earlier, another women's doubles pair of Treesa and Gayatri also secured their spot in the second round with a contrasting win. The world no. 22 Indian pair registered a hard-fought three-game (16-21, 21-10, 21-18) win against Hong Kong's Lui Lok Lok and Ng Wing Yung.
Treesa and Gayatri lost the first game after frequent misses in the backcourt but made a solid comeback in the second game and drew level in the match, taking the game 21-10.
They were cruising in the third game with an 18-12 lead but then the Hong Kong pair fought back to reduce the margin to 18-19, bringing to effect their solid defence. The Indian pair, however, held their nerves and took the next two points to wrap up the contest.
Both the Indian women's doubles pairings will now face each other in the pre-quarters on Thursday for a place in the much-important quarterfinals. This will be an interesting clash given that both the combinations are fighting for one Paris Olympics quota place in the Race to Paris rankings in the women's doubles category.
On the other hand, Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian booked his place in the main draw of the men's singles event with a three-game (20-22, 21-10, 21-14) win over Korakrit Laotrakul of Thailand in the second round of qualifiers.
Sameer Verma also sealed his place in the main draw with a tight three-game (16-21, 21-16, 21-15) win over former world youth champion Kuo Kuan Lin of Chinese Taipei.
In mixed doubles, Asith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh lost (22-20, 13-21, 10-21) to the Chinese Taipei pair of Po Li-Wei and Chang Ching Hui in the qualifying round.
