Unheralded Indian Tharun Mannepalli stored alive the nation’s males’s singles hopes on the Arctic Open 2025, staging an exhilarating comeback to upset world No. 14 Toma Junior Popov of France, at the same time as Lakshya Sen suffered his tenth first-round exit of the yr right here on Wednesday.
Mannepalli, ranked forty sixth, overcame a first-game loss to beat Popov 11-21, 21-11, 22-20 in a one-hour and eight-minute contest, saving 4 match factors within the decider to drag off a exceptional win within the BWF Tremendous 500 occasion.
He’ll tackle world No. 18 Koki Watanabe of Japan within the pre-quarterfinals.
Paris Olympics semifinalist Lakshya fell 21-15, 21-17 in 57 minutes to world No. 11 and fifth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
Lakshya struggled from the beginning, trailing 11-6 on the first-game interval and failing to mount a critical problem.
The second recreation was nearer at 11-10, however Naraoka shifted gears after the break, limiting Lakshya to seven extra factors.
This marked Sen’s sixth defeat in eight matches in opposition to Naraoka and his tenth first-round exit of the 2025 season, though he did attain the ultimate of final month’s Hong Kong Open.
Different Indians additionally confronted early exits.
Former world No. 1 Kidambi Srikanth conceded a walkover to Denmark’s Rasmus Gemke, whereas Kiran George retired in his second recreation after trailing 1-4 after conceding the opener 10-21 to Watanabe.
Sankar Subramanian went down 21-17, 21-11 to France’s Christo Popov in 44 minutes, and Ayush Shetty misplaced 21-15, 21-16 in opposition to high seed Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand in 50 minutes.
Revealed – October 09, 2025 05:50 am IST
