8 months ago
3
Unheralded Indian Tharun Mannepalli kept live the country's men's singles hopes astatine the Arctic Open 2025, staging a thrilling comeback to upset satellite No. 14 Toma Junior Popov of France, adjacent arsenic Lakshya Sen suffered his 10th first-round exit of the twelvemonth present connected Wednesday.
Mannepalli, ranked 46th, overcame a first-game nonaccomplishment to bushed Popov 11-21, 21-11, 22-20 successful a one-hour and eight-minute contest, redeeming 4 lucifer points successful the decider to propulsion disconnected a singular triumph successful the BWF Super 500 event.
He volition instrumentality connected satellite No. 18 Koki Watanabe of Japan successful the pre-quarterfinals.
Paris Olympics semifinalist Lakshya fell 21-15, 21-17 successful 57 minutes to satellite No. 11 and 5th effect Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
Lakshya struggled from the start, trailing 11-6 astatine the first-game interval and failing to equine a superior challenge.
The 2nd crippled was person astatine 11-10, but Naraoka shifted gears aft the break, limiting Lakshya to 7 much points.
This marked Sen's sixth decision successful 8 matches against Naraoka and his 10th first-round exit of the 2025 season, though helium did scope the last of past month's Hong Kong Open.
Other Indians besides faced aboriginal exits.
Former satellite No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth conceded a walkover to Denmark's Rasmus Gemke, portion Kiran George retired successful his 2nd crippled aft trailing 1-4 aft conceding the opener 10-21 to Watanabe.
Sankar Subramanian went down 21-17, 21-11 to France's Christo Popov successful 44 minutes, and Ayush Shetty mislaid 21-15, 21-16 against apical effect Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand successful 50 minutes.
