The all Indian badminton pair of Manu Attri and B. Sumeeth Reddy climbed to 17th in the world rankings due to their impressive performance at the recently concluded Mexico Grand Prix. They defeated Thailand's Bodin Issara and Nipitphon Puangpuapech in straight sets 22-20,21-18 in the finals of Mexico Grand Prix to clinch their maiden Grand Prix title.
Earlier, the 3rd seeded all Indian pair defeated the unseeded Thai pair of Puavaranukroh Dechapol and Kedren Kittinupong 22-24, 21-15, 21-8 in 48 minutes in the semi-finals.
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“We played without any pressure”
22-year old Attri commented on their maiden Grand Prix title and said, “They're the no 1 pair of Thailand, so it was a tough match for us as we had lost to them in the last tournament (K&D Graphics Grand Prix in California). But we played really good and it was our day. We played without any pressure and there were no unforced errors from our side. Basically we played amazing badminton. It was one of the best matches ever.”
The duo came close to winning their maiden Grand Prix in July 2015 at the US Open Grand Prix Gold, where the Indian duo lost the finals 12-21 16-21 to the Chinese duo of Junhui Li and Yuchen Liu and disappointingly finished runners-up.
“We started the year with a GP gold runners up and ended with a GP title”
He added, “It was a satisfying year as we started the year with a GP gold runners up and ended with a GP title. And in that tournament, I was awarded the best men player trophy in January.”
There was no movement for Saina Nehwal and P.V. Sindhu in women’s singles rankings, who stayed at 2nd and 12th respectively. In the men’s singles, Ajay Jayaram gained a place to be 21st after his quarter-final appearance in Mexico, while Kidambi Srikanth and Parupalli Kashyap remained at the 9th and 15th spots respectively.
The Indian Badminton duo of Manu and Sumeeth will be satisfied by how 2015 has turned out for them. The duo won the Belgian International Challenge and Lagos International challenge, besides reaching the finals of Dutch Open Grand Prix, Prague Open International Challenge and Guatemala International challenge.
