Badminton
Sugi Gopinath stuns competition at the All England Championships
The Indian teenager beat a set of seeded players to reach the finals of the Junior Badminton Championships.
Last year, Sugi Gopinath had won the All India sub-junior ranking tournament in Vijaywada. (Photo credit: Tamilnadu_Badminton)
On Sunday, India’s Sugi Sai Gopinath won silver at the Yonex All England Junior Badminton Championships in Birmingham.
Sugi lost the finals to the second-seeded Portuguese Tiago Berenguer in three sets 21-11, 14-21, 21-5.
A stunning performance
The unseeded Sugi stunned onlookers by defeating a slew of seeded players en-route to the finals.
The Indian sprang a huge surprise by defeating three junior English players in straight sets, lasting about 20 minutes each.
In the fourth round, he beat the fourth-seeded former champion, Jason Ou of England 21-10, 18-21, 21-17.
He then overcame Harper Leigh of Wales who was seventh-seeded in the quarters in straight sets 21-9, 21-13.
A promising player
In the semi-finals, Sugi faced the stern test of the top-seed Bharath Latheesh from the UAE, who had incidentally already gone on to win the mixed doubles with his partner Taabia Khan.
The Indian teenager overcame Bharath in a thrilling contest that lasted almost 45 minutes with the score line reading 21-18, 14-21, 21-12.
Sugi Gopinath currently trains at the Fireball Academy in Chennai and is under the tutelage of Aravindan Samiappan.
The teenager is ranked 50th in the Indian junior circuit and 175th in the world junior rankings.
In November last year, Sugi won the All India Junior Ranking Boys Singles U-17 at Vijayawada, a national singles title that established his credentials as a leading junior players.
And now, with a silver at the prestigious All-England Tournament, Sugi Gopinath is undoubtedly a player to watch out for.
