-Olympics
World championships bronze medallist Ashwini Ponnappa and her women’s doubles partner Tanisha Crasto marched into the quarter-finals of the Odisha Masters 2023 badminton event at the Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium in Cuttack on Thursday.
Ponnappa and Crasto, who rose to world No. 24 in BWF rankings for women’s doubles after winning the Guwahati Masters last week, defeated world No. 152 pair of Arul Bala Radhakrishnan and Varshini Viswanath Sri 21-13, 21-13 in the round of 16 contest.
Tanisha Crasto also progressed in the mixed doubles with Dhruv Kapila. The Indian badminton players got the better of Indonesia’s Amri Syahnawi and Winny Oktavina Kandow 21-16, 21-12. However, Ashwini Ponnappa could not make it to the next round of mixed doubles with Rohan Kapoor following a 14-21, 21-17, 14-21 defeat to B Sumeeth Reddy and N Sikki Reddy in the round of 16.
The 16-year-old Unnati Hooda, who became India’s youngest badminton player to win two BWF titles earlier this year, won her match against Ashmita Chaliha with a score of 21-18, 21-16 to advance to the next round.
Kiran George defeated Indonesia’s Iqbal Diaz Syahputra 21-14, 21-16 for a place in the quarter-finals of men’s singles. Chirag Sen won his match against Mads Christophersen with a score of 21-10, 15-21, 21-17.
Rutuparna Panda-Swetaparna Panda also made it to the quarter-finals of women’s doubles with a 21-12, 14-21, 21-19 win against Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker.
Results at Odisha Masters 2023 will count towards players’ qualifying rankings for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
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