Busanan Ongbamrungphan eased through her opening match at the US$900,000 (approx 28.8 million baht) BWF Denmark Open but mixed doubles pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran were forced to dig deep to advance on Wednesday.
Busanan got past Polina Buhrova of Ukraine 21-11, 21-13 in just 39 minutes but will have a much tougher assignment in the last 16 of the Super 750 event as she takes on third seed Han Yue on Thursday.
China’s Han ousted Yeo Jia Min of Singapore 21-14, 21-10 in her opener.
Mixed doubles third seeds Dechapol and Supissara, who reached the semi-finals at the Arctic Open last week, dropped the opening game against Chen Cheng-kuan and Hsu Yin-hui of Taiwan but eventually prevailed in three games, 19-21, 22-20, 21-18.
The duo, who are chasing their fifth title of the year, will face Hiroki Midorikawa and Natsu Saito of Japan in the last 16.
Dechapol and his partner Kittinupong Kedren, however, bowed out in the men’s doubles opener on Tuesday.
Another women’s singles hope, Ratchanok Intanon, failed to get past her first hurdle, going down to Michelle Li of Canada in three games, 21-16, 12-21, 19-21.
It was Ratchanok’s third loss against Li, but the Thai still leads their head-to-head record 8-3.
Also on Wednesday, Kim Ga-Eun of South Korea knocked out Stefani Stoeva of Bulgaria 21-10, 21-13. Kim will face Li in the last 16.
Men’s singles third seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn, women’s singles player Supanida Katethong and another mixed pair Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat were due to play their first round matches later last night.
Defending men’s champion Anders Antonsen, who also won the competition in 2020, is seeded second at his home event and was to face old rival Anthony Sinisuka Ginting in his opener.