SUNCHEON, South Korea, April 6 (Xinhua) — China’s Wang Zhiyi took a hard-fought victory against Supanida Katethong of Thailand while Wang’s compatriot Li Shifeng was knocked out in the BWF Korea Open here on Wednesday.
22-year-old Li, who was defeated by Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie in the BWF German Open in March, was edged out by Misha Zilberman of Israel 21-17, 21-16 in the men’s singles in Suncheon.
Wang beat Katethong 17-21,21-16,21-19 in the women’s singles, and second seed An Se-young of South Korea thrashed Sri Krishna Priya Kudaravalli of India 21-5, 21-13.
India’s third seed Pusarla V. Sindhu beat the United States’ Lauren Lam 21-15, 21-14. Seventh seed Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand took an easy win over South Korea’s Kim Hyomin 21-11, 21-5. Eighth seed Michelle Li of Canada was knocked out by Saena Kawakami of Japan 21-12, 15-21, 21-13.
In the men’s singles, Malaysia’s Soong Joo Ven was edged out by third seed Jonatan Christie 21-13, 21-18.
Fifth seed Kidambi Srikanth of India ousted Liew Daren of Malaysia 22-20, 21-11. Thailand’s rising star Kunlavut Vitidsarn, as eighth seed, defeated Japan’s Koki Watanabe 21-12, 21-10.
In the men’s doubles, South Korean pair Choo Chan and Choo Jin lost to Indonesia’s second seeds Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan 21-16, 21-15. Shin Taeyang and Wang Chan of South Korea were also defeated by India’s third seeds Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty 21-16, 21-15.
In the mixed doubles, Indian duo Reddy B. Sumeeth and Ashwini Ponnappa, who beat Jun Liang Andy Kwek and Yujia Jin of Singapore 21-19, 21-18, will meet China’s Ou Xuanyi and Huang Yaqiong in the quarterfinals.
