Ratchanok Intanon and Pitchamon Opatniputh advanced to the quarter-finals of the BWF Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Second seed Ratchanok beat Kaloyana Nalbantova of Bulgaria 21-15, 21-11 in 34 minutes and will play fifth seed Line Christophersen of Denmark in the last eight of the Super 500 tournament. Christophersen beat Huang Chingping of Taiwan 21-13, 21-12.
Ratchanok is bidding to become the women's singles winner of the KL tournament for the third time. The 31-year-old is currently tied with India's Pusarla V Sindhu and China's Wang Zhiyi on two titles each.
Rising star Pitchamon maintained her fine form, booking her place in the last eight with a 21-18, 21-10 win over seventh seed Nguyen Thuy Linh, also in 34 minutes.
Next up for the 19-year-old, a semi-finalist at the Thailand Open last week, is a tough match against top seed Chen Yufei of China. Chen knocked out Devika Sihag of India 21-16, 21-13 yesterday.
In the men's singles, Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul fought back after dropping the first game to beat Wang Tzu-wei of Taiwan 17-21, 21-17, 21-12.
Earlier, mixed doubles pair Pakkapon Teeraratsakul and Sapsiree Taerattanachai battled into the last eight with an 18-21, 21-18, 21-16 win over Bobby Setiabudi and Melati Daeva Oktavianti of Indonesia, while women's doubles pair Ornnicha Jongsathapornparn and Sabrina Sophita Wedler edged Francesca Corbett and Jennie Gai of the United States 21-16, 11-21, 25-23.
