Thailand Masters: Mithun Manjunath stuns eighth seed to book clash with Paris Olympics bronze medalist
Bangkok, January 28
Shuttler Mithun Manjunath cruised into the second round, stunning the eighth-seed Magnus Johannessen of Denmark on Wednesday in Thailand Masters badminton tournament.
The 27-year-old Mithun, ranked 60th in the world, outclassed the world number 41 21-12, 9-21, 21-17 at the Super 300 event, according to Olympics.com.
Mithun was dominant in the first game, before Magnus turned the table in the second game to set up a decider. The decider turned out to be a well-fought, entertaining affair, once level at 17-17 before Mithun took four successive points to take the match and set up a second-round clash against Paris 2024 bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia.
A couple of positives came from women's singles, when Rakshita Ramraj pushed top seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand to absolute limits, but lost 21-18, 13-21, 14-21 after winning the first game. Also, the world number 51st Anmol Kharb, reached the second round with a fine win over Lo Sin Yan of Hong Kong by 21-12, 21-12. He will be locking horns against Chinese Taipei's fifth seed Huang Yu-Hsun
Kiran George also did well, securing a win over Malaysia's Aidil Sholeh in the men's singles by 21-15, 21-9 in an easy two-game win.
— ANI
Reader Comments
So proud of Rakshita Ramraj too! Pushing the top seed to three games is no small feat, even in a loss. She showed great spirit. We need to support our women shuttlers just as much. Great day for Indian badminton overall! 👏
Excellent performance, but a small note: the article says Anmol Kharb is world number 51. Isn't she the one who did wonders at the Asia Team Championships? She's a huge talent. Hope the media gets the details right to give our athletes their due credit.
Mithun's comeback in the decider after losing the second game badly shows real mental strength. That's what separates good players from champions. All the best against Lee Zii Jia! It will be a tough but exciting match.
Following from the US! It's great to see Indian athletes making waves in international tournaments beyond cricket. Mithun's win is being talked about here in the badminton community too. Keep it up!
Bas, yeh chahiye! More consistency please. We have the talent, we just need our players to perform like this in every tournament. The win against the 8th seed is a big confidence booster. Hope this is the start of a great run for him.
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