Kunlavut, Ratchanok and Supanida win openers in Japan

Kunlavut Vitidsarn, Ratchanok Intanon and Supanida Katethong advanced to the last 16 of the US$420,000 BWF Kumamoto Masters Japan in Kumamoto Wednesday.
Third seed Kunlavut, who won his first title of the year at the Korea Masters on Sunday, continued where he left off in Iksan City, brushing aside Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong 21-19, 21-12 to progress to the last 16 of the World Tour Super 500 event.
World champion and Olympic silver medallist Kunlavut will play Chi Yu-jen of Taiwan for a place in the quarter-finals.
Ratchanok joined her compatriot in the last 16 after edging past Asuka Takahashi of Japan 21-7, 22-20. She will meet fifth seed Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia.
Seventh seed Supanida staged a strong comeback against Sung Shuo-yun, rallying from a game down to defeat the Taiwanese 12-21, 21-11, 21-7, earning her place in the round of 16 against Line Hojmark Kjaersfeldt of Denmark.
Mixed doubles duo Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Supissara Paewsampran also advanced. The Thai pair knocked out second seeds Chen Tang Jie and Toh Ee Wei of Malaysia 21-15, 21-12 and will play Dutch duo Robin Tabeling and Alexandra Boje in the last 16.
Another mixed pair Ruttanapak Oupthong and Jhenicha Sudjaipraparat eliminated sixth seeds Yang Po-hsuan and Hu Ling-fang of Taiwan 21-16, 21-12. They will face either Hiroki Nishi and Akari Sato of Japan or Wu Hsuan-yi and Yang Chu-yun of Taiwan next.
Meanwhile Busanan Ongbamrungphan and Pornpicha Choeikeewong both exited the tournament after losing to Pusarla V Sindhu of India and top seed Wang Zhiyi of China respectively. Women’s doubles players Benyapa Aimsaard and Nuntakarn Aimsaard and mixed doubles pair Supak Jomkoh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai also bowed out in the first round Wednesday.
In other results Wednesday, men’s top seed Viktor Axelsen of Denmark eased through his opener, beating Wang Tzu-wei of Taiwan 21-14, 21-14; second seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan advanced with a 24-22, 21-16 victory over Chia Hao-lee of Taiwan and Toma Junior Popov of France downed Lu Guangzu of China 22-20, 21-10.