Thailand Open 2023 Badminton: Sameer, Kiran, and Ashmita reach the singles main draw

Indian shuttlers Sameer Verma and Kiran Geroge, and Ashmita Chaliha entered the main draw of the Thailand Open 2023 Badminton Super 500 tournament after beating their opponents in the qualifying rounds.

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Former world number 11 Sameer, who recently won the Slovenia Open, defeated Malaysia's Yeoh Seng Zoe 21-12, 21-17. Earlier in the two rounds, he got walkovers against Christian Adinata of Indonesia and Luis Enrique Penalver of Spain. The 28-year-old Sameer, who won three titles in 2018, will face Magnus Johannesen of Denmark in the first round of the Thailand Open 2023 Badminton main draw.

On the other hand, Kiran, who had won the Odisha Open last year, defeated compatriot Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-14 21-18. After that, he defeated Korea's Jeon Hyeok 21-10 21-14. Kiran will now face Chinese Shi Yu Qi. While in women's singles, Ashmita Chaliha defeated Unnati Hooda 21-16, 13-21, 21-19. After that, she defeated Estonia's Kristin Kuuba by 21-19, 21-11. Ashmita of Assam will take on Malvika Bansod, who was scheduled to play in the qualifiers initially. But She got a direct entry into the Thailand Open 2023 Badminton main draw.

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In addition, India's Olympian B Sai Praneeth and national champion Mithun Manjunath got direct entry into the Thailand Open 2023 Badminton main draw where they will join compatriots Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen. Praneeth and Mithun will take on Christo Popov of France and second seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand respectively.

However, in the women's doubles qualifiers, the Indian pair of Palak Arora and Unnati Hooda lost in the first round. While Indian top shuttlers PV Sindhu and Saina Nehwal will be in action in the main draw of the Bangkok meet on Wednesday.