Badminton, Thailand Open Super 500: Meiraba Luwang Maisnam qualifies for men’s singles main draw

Meiraba Luwang Maisnam was the only Indian shuttler to progress through the qualifiers at the 2024 Thailand Open Super 500 in Bangkok on Tuesday.

Meiraba, ranked No 84 in the world, beat fellow Indian Shashwat Dalal in the opening round of the men’s singles qualifiers 21-15, 14-21, 16-21.

He then qualified for the main draw by beating Kok Jing Hong of Malaysia in straight games (21-9, 21-9).

Meiraba is now slated to face fellow Indian and fifth seed HS Prannoy in the first round of the main draw.

The other challengers in the men’s singles qualifiers were S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian and Kartikey Gulshan Kumar, both of whom exited in the first round itself, while Ayush Shetty and Ravi lost their second-round matches in the qualifiers.

Nikki Rapria in women’s singles and the men’s doubles pair of Vimalraj Annadurai and Mauryan Kathiravan also exited the qualifiers in the first round itself.

Sathish-Aadya advance to Round of 16

Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Sathish Karunakaran and Aadya Variyath were the only Indians to win a main draw match on Tuesday when the duo beat local pairing Tanakorn Meechai and Fungfa Korpthammakit 21-17, 21-16 in the Round of 32.

Karunakaran and Variyath will now meet second seeds Rinov Rivaldy and Pitha Haningtyas Mentari from Indonesia in the Round of 32.

The Indonesian pair had beaten the other Indian pair, B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy, who went down in straight games (21-12, 21-16) in the first round.

Men’s doubles top seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will open their campaign against Malaysian pairing Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub Azriyn and Tan Wee Kiong on Wednesday.

Along with Prannoy, Kiran George and Karunakaran will open their campaign in the men’s singles main draw. Ashmita Chaliha, Malvika Bansod, Unnati Hooda, Imad Farooqui Samiya and Aakarshi Kashyap will also represent the country in women’s singles.

Rapria will feature in the women’s doubles event alongside her sister Nishu while Hooda will also play the opening round in the event, partnering with Palak Arora.