India’s B Sai Praneeth stormed into the quarterfinals of the Thailand Open Super 300 badminton tournament with a hard-fought three-game win over Korean qualifier Heok Jin-jeon, here on Thursday. Praneeth defeated his Korean opponent 24-22 7-21 22-20 in the men’s singles second round match. He will now face sixth seed Li Shi Feng of China in the last eight round. Earlier, Kiran George and Asmita Chaliha suffered three-game defeats in the second round of their respective events.
Odisha Open champion George went down 22-20 15-21 20-22 to third seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong in the men’s singles. Asmita went down 21-19 13-21 27-29 to sixth seed Dane Hojmark Jaarsfeldt of Denmark in the women’s singles round of 16 match. In mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar went down 19-21 16-21 to Indonesian pair of Akbar Bintang Kahyono and Marcella Jischa Islami. N Sikki Reddy and Rohan Kapoor also failed to cross the second round hurdle.
