Thailand Masters: Treesa-Gayatri into Quarters; Mithun upsets Kidambi

The pair of Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand showed great resilience and booked their place in the quarterfinals of Thailand Masters Super 300 after winning an all-Indian affair at the Nimibutr Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand on Thursday.

Meanwhile, Mithun Manjunath defeated the senior home compatriot Kidambi Srikanth in a three-game (21-9, 13-21, 21-17) and booked a place in the quarterfinal. This was Mithun's second international victory over Kidambi in the second meeting, the last one was also a three-game match in the Singapore Open 2022.

The first game was very one-sided as world no.63 Mithun troubled Kidambi with his deceptive shots and took it comfortably in the end with 21-9. Ranked 24 in the world, Kidambi bounced back in the second game with his attacking gameplay and hard smashes and quickly wrapped the game 21-13.

Although, the third game was very close as both the players were trying for overwhelming shots and making mistakes in executing, in the end the youngster took it 21-17 because of many unforced errors by Kidambi.

Mithun will play Mark Caljouw of the Netherlands in the quarter-finals tomorrow to make a deep run into the tournament.

On the other hand, Sankar Subramanian Muthusamy lost very easily in the straight-game (9-21, 11-21) affair with the defending champion Lin Chun-yi of Chinese Taipei.

The best match of the day was another all-Indian affair in the women's doubles category where the youngsters Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand took a straight-game affair (21-15, 24-22) with Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto.

The match ended in straight games but it was a dramatic finish at the end that caught the eye when Ashwini-Tanisha were leading 20-15 in the second game but Treesa's powerful smashes and Gayatri's excellent net skills took the game to deuce with 20-20.

Ashwini-Tanisha gets two more opportunities to take the game (21-20, 22-21) but could not convert and in the end, the young Indian pair came on top after saving seven match points and booked a place in the quarterfinals.

They will face the fourth-seeded Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amalia Cahaya Pratiwi in tomorrow's quarterfinal clash.

In the women's singles category, Ashmita Chaliha takes a three-game (21-12, 15-21, 21-17) win over Pai Yu Po of Chinese Taipei in the round of 16 clash. She will play Ester Nurumi tri Wardoyo of Indonesia in tomorrow's quarter-final clash.

Another singles player, Malvika Bansod loses out (22-24, 7-21) to the world no.19, Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand in her second round clash.