Indian teenager shuttler Varun Kapur goes down in Dutch International quarter-finals

Varun Kapur did reasonably well by reaching the quarter-finals at the FZ Forza Dutch International 2022 Series badminton tournament in Wateringen, Netherlands.

Unseeded Varun Kapur reached the men’s singles quarter-finals in the four-day tournament, organized by Badminton Netherlands. The Indian teenager lost to second seed Julien Carraggi of Belgium in the quarters. World No. 131 Carraggi defeated former junior World No. 2 Varun Kapur 21-3, 21-16 in 28 minutes to enter the semis.

Kapur, ranked 266 in the world, did not have the best of starts against Carraggi. However, he performed better in the second game but could not get past the higher-ranked Belgian player.

Varun Kapur upset eighth seed Jonathan Dolan in the second round

Varun, who went to the Netherlands immediately after overcoming dengue, got off to a brilliant start in the tournament. He ousted Germany’s Brian Holtschke 21-19, 21-17 in the first round. It was sweet revenge for Varun as he lost to world No. 247 Holtschke last year at the Hungarian International Challenge in three games.

Varun avenged his previous defeat against the German to set up a second-round clash with eighth seed Jonathan Dolan. The Pune teenager who trains at the Pune-based Nikhil Kanetkar Badminton Academy, raised his level of play to shock eighth seed Jonathan Dolan of Ireland 21-13, 15-21, 21-17 in the second round.

Varun took nearly an hour to surprise Ireland’s Dolan, ranked 178 in the world. It was one of his best victories on the international circuit. The youngster, who has been supported by the Virat Kohli Foundation and Britannia, has been doing well this season.

Proving a point to his detractors, Varun won the men’s singles title at the Maharashtra Senior State Badminton Championship in Nagpur a couple of months ago.

Apart from Varun, the other Indian players fail to impress

Barring Varun Kapur, the rest of the Indian players failed to impress in the Dutch tournament.

In the men’s singles first round, sixth seed Ivan Rusev of Bulgaria trounced India’s Siddharath Thakur 21-12, 21-7 in 32 minutes.

Shruthika Senthil lost in the women’s singles second round. Rachel Sugden of Scotland thumped Senthil 21-10, 21-7 in 23 minutes. Meanwhile, top seed Jenjira Stadelmann of Switzerland overcame a stiff challenge from India’s Ananya Praveen 21-19, 21-17 in the women’s singles first round.

In the qualification rounds, Tasya Farahnailah of Indonesia edged past promising Indian teenager Mansi Singh 21-16, 14-21, 21-12 in 45 minutes. Ninth seed Gustav Bjorkler of Sweden also dismissed India’s Jaiditya Pratap Singh 21-10, 21-8 in the qualifiers.

Similarly, Lise Jacques and Lien Lammertyn of Belgium prevailed over the doubles pair of Manil Mahajan and Navya Mahajan 21-7, 21-8 in the qualifiers.