Supanida Katethong finally ended her first round losing spell when the Thai left-hander won her opening match at the US$250,000 (approx 8.4 million baht) BWF Taipei Open on Wednesday.
The Thai fourth seed, whose ranking dropped to No.26 after a dismal stretch, defeated Shriyanshi Valishetty of India 21-11, 21-12 to book her berth in the last 16 of the Super 300 tournament.
The victory ended a run of eight consecutive first round losses for the 28-year-old. Supanida last won a World Tour title at the Swiss Open in March — her first since the 2024 Thailand Open — and did not win a single match in a World Tour event after that until on Wednesday.
Supanida will take on Wen Yu Zhang of Canada in the last 16 on Thursday.
Women’s doubles pair Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sabrina Sophita Wedler also progressed with a 21-14, 21-18 win over Rui Kiyama and Sona Yonemoto of Japan.
They will next face another Japanese pair, Nanako Hara and Riko Kiyose, in the second round.
Ornnicha, who is also competing in the mixed doubles event with Supak Jomkoh, won her first round match against Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K of India on Tuesday.
Another mixed duo, Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat, also won their opening match on Tuesday.
In other results on Wednesday, women’s fifth seed Huang Yu-hsun of Taiwan defeated Kim Min-Ji of South Korea 21-16, 21-10, Thalita Ramadhani Wiryawan knocked out seventh seed Zhang Beiwen of the US 21-17, 21-15, while men’s seventh seed HS Prannoy of India beat Minoru Koga of Japan 21-11, 21-14 and Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia edged Liao Jhuo-fu of Taiwan 22-24, 21-12, 21-15.