Kidambi Srikanth moves to second round of Thailand Masters

NEW DELHI: India shuttler Kidambi Srikanth on Wednesday kicked off his Thailand Masters campaign with a straight-game win over Chinese Taipei's Wang Tzu Wei in Bangkok. The former world number battled for 45 minutes, securing a 22-20, 21-19 win, advancing to the second round. In the next round, Srikanth is set to face compatriot Mithun Manjunath, who defeated Jason Gunawan from Hong Kong with a scoreline of 21-17, 21-8 in the first round.S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian also started his campaign with a 21-14 21-17 straight game win over Leong Jun Hao of Malaysia.Sameer Verma made a first round exit, going down to Hong Kong's Angus Ng Ka Long 14-21 18-21 while Kiran George retired after trailing 17-21 in his round of 32 match against China's Lei Lan Xi.Malvika Bansod and Ashmita Chaliha cruised to the second round of the women's singles event.While Ashmita defeated Wong Ling Ching 21-10 21-16, Malivika got the better of Peru's Ines Lucia Castillo Salazar 22-20, 21-8.Malvika will next face Thailand's Busanan Ongbamrungphan, who knocked out India's Imad Farooqui Samiya 21-14, 21-18.(With inputs from PTI)