Kunlavut Vitidsarn stormed into the men’s singles quarter-finals of the US$950,000 BWF French Open on Thursday.
The Thai third seed swept past his Japanese rival Kodai Naraoka 21-7, 21-6 in just 38 minutes to book a place in the last eight of the Super 750 tournament at the Glaz Arena.
Kunlavut, who is chasing his fourth title of the year, will battle it out against Alwi Farhan for a place in the semi-finals after the Indonesian player edged past Nhat Nguyen of Ireland in three games, 16-21, 21-12, 21-17, on Thursday.
Mixed doubles players Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai bowed out, losing to second seeds Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping of China 5-21, 23-21, 12-21.
In other early results yesterday, women’s fourth seed Han Yue of China progressed with a three-game win over Michelle Li of Canada, 21-12, 23-21, 21-16, while men’s sixth seed Jonatan Christie of Indonesia was sent packing by Koki Watanabe of Japan, 11-21, 21-19, 25-23.
Han will play Japan’s Tomoka Miyazaki, who defeated Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland, while Watanabe will meet either fourth seed Li Shifeng of China or Julien Carraggi of Belgium in the quarter-finals.
Another Thai mixed pair, Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran, the third seeds, were due to play their last-16 match against Jafar Hidayatullah and Felisha Alberta Nathaniel Pasaribu of Indonesia later last night.