Thailand Masters 2023 badminton: Teenager Unnati Hooda fails to make singles main draw
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Sai Pratheek K, in men’s doubles, were the only Indian badminton players to register a victory on the opening day.
Badminton
Unnati Hooda and the four other Indian singles players in action on Tuesday in Bangkok failed to make the Thailand Masters 2023 main draw from the qualifiers.
The 15-year-old Unnati Hooda, who won the Odisha Open last year, lost her first round women’s singles qualifier match to local player Pornpicha Choeikeewong 17-21, 23-21, 21-16.
Indian badminton players Keyura Mopati and Prerana Neeluri also lost their respective opening round women’s singles qualifying matches to Indonesia’s Insyirah Khan and Thamonwan Nithiittikrai, respectively.
None of the two men’s singles players managed to cross the first hurdle either. Kartikey Gulshan Kumar lost his opening match to Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak 21-16, 21-12 while Sathish Kumar went down to Chinese Taipei opponent Chi Yu Jen 21-18, 21-14.
Unnati Hooda’s doubles campaign also ended prematurely as the teenager and her partner Palak Arora lost their qualifying match to the South Korean pair of Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chan 21-15, 21-12.
In the men’s doubles main draw, India’s P S Ravikrishna and Sankar Prasad Udayakumar crashed out after losing to Chinese Taipei pair Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 21-16, 18-21, 10-21.
Ishaan Bhatnagar and Sai Pratheek K emerged as the only Indian players to taste victory on the day. The duo beat USA’s Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan 21-18, 21-12.
The big surprise of the day came in the women’s doubles round of 32. India’s Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, the third seeds at the BWF Super 300 tournament, bowed out after a surprise 21-9, 21-10 loss to Japan’s Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto.
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa also crashed out of women’s doubles after a 21-15, 21-18 defeat to China’s Tan Ning and Xia Yu Ting.