Kiran George, Manjunath move into second round at Thailand Masters

India’s Kiran George and Mithun Manjunath progressed to the second round of the men’s singles at the Thailand Masters Super 300 tournament in Bangkok on Wednesday, registering victories that followed very different paths.

Seventh seed Kiran George produced one of the most efficient performances of the day, dispatching Indonesia’s Sholeh Aidil in just 27 minutes. George controlled the rallies from the outset and wrapped up a 21-15, 21-9 win without being stretched.

World number 60 Mithun Manjunath, on the other hand, came through a hard-fought three-game contest to knock out eighth seed Magnus Johannesen of Denmark. Manjunath took the opening game comfortably before dropping the second, but held his nerve in the decider to close out a 21-12, 9-21, 21-17 victory after nearly an hour on court.

India also saw Tharun Mannepalli advance in men’s singles, with the youngster edging past Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen 22-20, 21-17. However, several Indian shuttlers bowed out in the opening round. Priyanshu Rajawat went down narrowly to Canada’s Brian Yang in three games, while Manraj Singh and S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian suffered straight-games and three-game defeats respectively.

Mixed results for Indians in women’s singles

In the women’s draw, rising player Anmol Kharb progressed to the second round with a convincing 21-12, 21-12 win over Hong Kong’s Lo Sin Yan Happy and will face Huang Yu-Hsun next. Tasnim Mir, Anupama Upadhyaya and Tanya Hemanth exited early, while Shriyanshi Valishetty and Isharani Baruah advanced, the latter winning an all-Indian clash against Malvika Bansod.

India’s mixed doubles challenge ended in the opening round after Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K were defeated by the Chinese Taipei pair of Zhi-Wei He and Liang Ching Sun.