Thai trio Busanan Ongbamrungphan, Ratchanok Intanon and Pornpawee Chochuwong advanced to the women's singles last 16 of the US$420,000 BWF Hong Kong Open on Wednesday.
Sixth seed Busanan survived a tough test in her opening match against Julie Dawall Jakobsen, overcoming the Danish player 21-12, 15-21, 21-16 in just under an hour to progress to the next stage of the World Tour Super 500 event.
She will next play Yeo Jia Min after the Singaporean player eliminated another Thai hope Pitchamon Opatniputh 23-21, 18-21, 21-16 yesterday.
Ratchanok, meanwhile, had little trouble against Chiu Pin-chian, defeating the Taiwanese player 21-11, 21-8 in just 29 minutes.
The Thai star will next face either Indonesia's Gregoria Mariska Tunjung, who beat her in the Paris 2024 Olympics quarter-finals, or Lee Yu-hsuan of Taiwan.
Meanwhile Pornpawee defeated Mia Blichfeldt of Denmark 21-12, 22-20 to set up a last-16 clash with Komang Ayu Cahya Dewi of Indonesia.
Women's top seed Tai Tzu-ying cruised past her first round opponent Isabelle Rusli of the United States 21-10, 21-12. She will play Putri Kusuma Wardini of Indonesia in the round of 16.
In other women's singles results yesterday, women's seventh seed Kim Ga-Eun of South Korea knocked out Goh Jin Wei of Malaysia 21-7, 24-22; fifth seed Aya Ohori of Japan eased past Aakarshi Kashyap of India 21-15 21-9 and Thet Htar Thuzar of Myanmar beat Liang Ka Wing of Hong Kong 21-18, 21-14.
In the men's singles competition, fifth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan defeated Huang Yu-kai of Taiwan 21-13, 21-13; Christo Popov of France downed Cheam June Wei of Malaysia 21-19, 21-10, but eighth seed Loh Kean Yew suffered an early exit, losing to Jeon Hyeok-Jin of South Korea 17-21, 17-21.