Badminton
Hylo Open 2023: Mithun Manjunath advances; Sankar Subramanian, Kiran George exit
This was world no. 70 Sankar's second consecutive Round of 32 exit. Last week, he lost to Arnaud Merkle of France in straight games at the Abu Dhabi Masters.
Badminton player Mithun Manjunath
Mithun Manjunath, ranked 58th in the world, registered a thumping 21-16, 21-8 victory over Italian Fabio Caponio as he progressed to the Round of 16 at the Hylo Open Super 300 in Saarbrucken, Germany, on Wednesday.
However, Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, the former World Junior Championships silver medallist, and world no. 35 Kiran George made a first-round exit after going down fighting against world no. 45 Julien Carraggi of Belgium and world no. 20 Ng Ka Long Angus of Hong Kong.
Julien came from a game down to beat Sankar 16-21, 21-12, 21-10 in 49 minutes, while George forced the decider after winning the second game but lost 15-21, 22-20, 18-21.
This was world no. 70 Sankar's second consecutive Round of 32 exit. Last week, he lost to Arnaud Merkle of France in straight games at the Abu Dhabi Masters.
In women's doubles, Panda sisters Rutaparna and Swetaparna could not put up any fight to Chinese world no. 11 duo Liu Sheng Shu and Tan Ning as they lost 15-21 in the first game and 5-21 in the second.
This was the Indian pair's third consecutive first-round exit. At the Arctic Open and French Open, Rutaparna and Swetaparna faced a similar fate.
On Tuesday, Malvika Bansod advanced to the Round of 16 as her opponent Liamme Tan gave a walkover. The Indian shuttler will play Juliana Viana Vieira of Brazil in the pre-quarterfinal.
