IBL: Youngsters to catch the eye

Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk of Thailand and Hyderabad Hotshots. (Getty Images)

Tanongsak Saensomboonsuk

Tanongsak has been around for a while, but he has always been in the shadow of his more accomplished men’s singles compatriot Boonsak Ponsana. Tanongsak has displayed indifferent form over the last few years, but things turned around suddenly from late last year.

The left-handed Thai was the runner-up at the Korea Open GP Gold in December 2012, following that up with another final appearance at the Syed Modi Memorial the following fortnight. A few months later came his best performance – Tanongsak surged into the semi-finals of the All England.

Tanongsak is the reason, along with Saina Nehwal, for Hyderabad Hotshots’ entry into the final – he won each of his five matches, beating players like P Kashyap, Marc Zwiebler, Sourabh Verma, Sai Praneeth and Guru Sai Dutt.

About the author

Dev S Sukumar is the recipient of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) Media Award, 2011. He is India's most widely travelled badminton writer, having covered several international tournaments, including the Olympics, the Asian Games, the CWG Games, World Championships, the All England, the Denmark Open, the Malaysia Open, etc. He has covered badminton for over ten years now. During this period he has met fascinating characters, witnessed great matches, and has authored a biography of Indian badminton great Prakash Padukone. He has written on the game for several publications, including Sports Illustrated, Mint, Badminton Asia magazine, The New Indian Express, Hindustan Times, DNA and IANS.
He tweets at twitter.com/shuttlemania

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Edited by Staff Editor