Macau: Anmol Kharb and Ashmita Chaliha advanced to the women’s singles quarterfinals while the country’s challenge ended in other sections at the Macau Open Super 300 badminton tournament here on Thursday.
World No. 63 Ashmita continued her impressive run on the BWF World Tour, defeating USA’s Ishika Jaiswal 22-20, 21-15 in 32 minutes to book her place in the last eight stage.
The unseeded Indian, who reached the quarterfinals at both the Malaysia Masters and China Masters in her last two tour events and made the semifinals at the Azerbaijan International in Baku earlier this year, will next face South Korea’s Kim Min Sun.
World No. 51 Anmol, who is seeded eighth, had a far easier passage as the former world junior and youth Olympic champion Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia retired while trailing 4-12 in the opening game after just eight minutes of action.
The Indian will now take on fourth seed Han Qian Xi of China in a tricky quarterfinal.
The rest of the Indian women’s singles contingent bowed out in the round of 16.
Rakshitha Sree Santhosh Ramraj went down 15-21, 9-21 to Kim Min Sun in 35 minutes, while Shriyanshi Valishetty suffered a 16-21, 16-21 defeat to South Korea’s Kim Min Ji in a 42-minute contest.
Isharani Baruah came closest to joining her compatriots in the quarterfinals but squandered opportunities in both games before losing 19-21, 21-23 to South Korea’s Park Ga Eun in 54 minutes.
India’s campaign in men’s singles also came to an end with both shuttlers exiting in the pre-quarterfinals.
Tharun Mannepalli fought hard before losing 22-24, 15-21 to China’s Dong Tian Yao in 44 minutes, while Rounak Chouhan was beaten 13-21, 17-21 by another Chinese player, Hu Zhe An, in 48 minutes.
In mixed doubles, Ishaan Bhatnagar and Shruti Mishra also crashed out after a narrow defeat to sixth-seeded Chinese pair Li Hong Yi and Huang Ke Xin.
The Indians took the opening game and also held an advantage in the second, but failed to convert their chances, eventually going down 21-19, 20-22, 16-21 in a 58-minute contest.
India’s campaign had already ended in the men’s and women’s doubles.
