Unnati Hood and four other Indian singles players in action on Tuesday in Bangkok failed Thailand Champions 2023 elimination main draw.
Unnati Hooda, 15, who won the Odisha Open last year, lost her qualifying match in the first round of women’s singles to local Pornpicha player Choeikeewong 17-21, 23-21, 21-16.
Indian badminton players Keyura Mopati and Prerana Neeluri also lost their women’s singles qualifying matches in the first round to Insyirah Khan and Thamonwan Nithiittikrai of Indonesia respectively.
Neither of the two men’s singles made it past the first hurdle either. Kartikey Gulshan Kumar lost his first match to Hong Kong’s Chan Yin Chak 21-16, 21-12 while Sathish Kumar lost to Chinese Taipei Chi Yu Jen 21-18, 21-14.
Unnati Hoody’s debut also ended prematurely as the teenager and her partner Palak Arora lost a qualifying match to South Korean duo Lee Yu Lim and Shin Seung Chan 21-15, 21-12.
In men’s doubles, India’s PS Ravikrishna and Sankar Prasad Udayakumar were eliminated after losing to Chinese Taipei pairing 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 that day. The duo defeated Vinson Chiu and Joshua Yuan of USA 21-18, 21-12.
The big surprise of the day was round 32 of women’s doubles. India’s Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly, the third seed in the BWF Super 300, were eliminated after a surprise 21-9, 21-10 loss to Japan’s Rena Miyaura and Ayako Sakuramoto.
Tanisha Crasto and Ashwini Ponnappa were also out of women’s doubles after losing 21-15, 21-18 to China’s Tan Ning and Xia Yu Ting.
