Taiwan's Yang, Liu advance to Thailand Open men's doubles quarterfinals

Taipei, May 15 (CNA) Taiwan badminton duo Yang Po-han (楊博涵) and Liu Kuang-heng (劉廣珩) advanced to the men's doubles quarterfinals at the 2025 Thailand Open on Thursday.

Yang and Liu defeated South Korean pairing Kang Min-hyuk and Ki Dong-ju 21-8, 21-19 in just 33 minutes during their round of 16 match.

The win marks the pair's second quarterfinal appearance at a BWF Super 500-level tournament or higher this year. They previously reached the quarterfinals at the prestigious Super 1000 All England Open in mid-March.

Thursday's triumph also signals a rebound for the world No. 24 duo following an early exit from the Taipei Open, a Super 300 event where they were forced to withdraw mid-match in the round of 32 due to Yang suffering an injury.

Yang told CNA he had been playing with the injury for some time, but the pain became unexpectedly severe during the match, prompting the withdrawal, adding that the problem is now under control and hopefully will not flare up again during the ongoing tournament.

Yang and Liu next face Indonesian duo Fajar Alfian and Muhammad Rian Ardianto on Friday.

Meanwhile, two Taiwanese women's pairs -- Hsu Yin-hui (許尹鏸) and Lin Jhih-yun (林芝昀), as well as Hsu Ya-ching (許雅晴) and Sung Yu-hsuan (宋祐媗) -- are set to square off against each other on Friday after defeating opponents from Thailand and Hong Kong, respectively.