India shuttlers B Sai Praneeth and Kiran George advanced to the second round of the Thailand Open Super 300 badminton tournament with contrasting wins over their respective opponents here on Wednesday.
Praneeth beat Mads Christophersen of Denmark 21- 13, 21-14 in a battle lasting 31 minutes. He faces Hyeok Jin Jeon of South Korea in second round.
George, on the other hand, staved off a tough challenge from Lee Chia Hao of Taiwan before winning 21-17, 19-21, 23- 21. He is up against third seed Cheuk Yiu Lee of Hong Kong in the second round.
However, Sameer Verma, Priyanshu Rajawat and Mithun Manjunath lost their first-round matches.
While Verma suffered a 14-21 16-21 loss to sixth-seeded Chinese Shi Feng Li, Rajawat lost to Kwang Hee Heo of South Korea 21-14, 19-21, 25-27 and Manjunath was beaten 18-21, 12-21 by fifth-seeded Kenta Nishimoto of Japan.
In women’s singles, Ashmita Chaliha beat compatriot Anupama Upadhyaya 21-16, 21-19 to reach the second round where she will face sixth seed Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark.
