Pornpawee Chochuwong booked her berth in the second round of the All England Open Championships in Birmingham yesterday.
The unseeded Thai beat compatriot Busanan Ongbamrungphan 21-18, 21-8 to reach the last 16 round of the US$1 million (approximately 32 million baht) BWF tournament at Arena Birmingham.
Pornpawee, who went out in the first round at the hands of India's PV Sindhu last year, will next play China's sixth seed He Bingjiao, who fought back from losing the first game to beat Fitriani Fitriani of Indonesia 17-21, 21-15, 21-10.
Mixed doubles stars Dechapol Puavaranukroh and Sapsiree Taerattanachai also came through their opening match, cruising past Japan's Yuki Kaneko and Misaki Matsutomo 21-11, 21-15 in just 28 minutes.
The fourth seeded pair will play either Rodion Alimov and Alina Davletova of Russia or Sam Magee and Chloe Magee of Ireland in the second round.
Seventh seed Ratchanok Intanon and Nitchaon Jindapol, the other two Thai players in the women's singles event, were due to play their first round matches late last night.
World No.8 Ratchanok, a finalist at the German Open on Sunday, lost in the first round last year while Nitchaon was beaten in the second round.
Khosit Phetpradab was due to play top seed and world No.1 Kento Momota of Japan while Suppanyu Avihingsanon was to face Malaysia's Daren Liew in the first round of the men's singles event later last night.
In other notable results yesterday, women's second seed Nozomi Okuhara of Japan defeated Gregoria Mariska Tunjung of Indonesia 21-17, 21-16 while Sung Ji-Hyun of South Korea knocked out fifth seed PV Sindhu 21-16, 20-22, 21-18 in the day's first big upset.
