Bangkok [Thailand], February 1 (ANI): India shuttler Mithun Manjunath pulled off a major upset by defeating experienced compatriot Kidambi Srikanth to seal his spot in the men’s singles quarter-finals at the Thailand Masters 2024 in Bangkok on Thursday.
Former world No. 1 Srikanth lost 21-9, 13-21, 21-17 to 63rd-ranked Manjunath, in an encounter that lasted for 54 minutes.
With this defeat, Srikanth has now failed to make the quarter-finals in any of his last nine tournaments on the BWF World Tour.
The 24th-ranked player last made an appearance in the final eight at the Australian Open in August last year.
On the other hand, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian also suffered a straight-set defeat to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Chun-Yi.
This leaves Manjunath as the last Indian to feature in the men’s singles bracket at the BWF Super 300 tournament.
Manjunath will now face Dutch shuttler Mark Caljouw in the quarter-finals.
In the women’s events, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand defeated Ashwini Ponnappa and Tanisha Crasto 21-15, 24-22 to seal their place in the final eight.
Treesa and Gayatri’s opponents in the quarters will be the fourth-seeded Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Amallia Cahaya Pratiwi.
In the women’s singles event, Ashmita Chaliha kept the Indian challenge alive after registering a victory over Taipei shuttler Pai Yu Po 21-12, 15-21, 21-17.
Chaliha will need to defeat world No. 44 Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo of Indonesia to seal her place in the semi-finals.
Earlier in the day, Malvika Bansod got bested 24-22, 21-7 to the eighth-seeded Busanan Ongbamrungphan. (ANI)
