Keeping in tune with Indian youngsters making noise on the badminton circuit, 20-year-old Aditya Joshi put up an inspired performance to upset the fourth seed and World No. 19 Jonatan Christie in the second round of the Princess Sirivannavari Thailand Masters 2017 in Bangkok on Wednesday.
Joshi staved off a late challenge from the Indonesian to post a 21-16, 21-19 victory in 39 minutes to enter the pre-quarter-finals. Last week, 15-year-old Lakshya Sen climbed to the pinnacle of the junior world rankings and followed it up by toppling the top seed HS Prannoy en route to reaching the final.
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Joshi, currently ranked 138th, has been on the rise for some time now. He reached the final of the Bahrain International Challenge in 2016 where he lost to his elder brother, Pratul Joshi.
Pratul Joshi too reaches third round
Aditya was not the only Indian shuttler to progress into the third round of this Grand Prix Gold event. Aditya’s brother Pratul also advanced with a hard-fought 21-16, 16-21, 21-12 win over local player, Kittipong Imnark in a 56-minute battle.
The brothers will next face each other for a place in the quarter-finals.
They are the last remaining Indians in the entire tournament. On Tuesday, rising talent Abhishek Yelegar bowed out in the first round with an 8-21, 14-21 loss to Indonesia’s Saputra Vicky Angga.
Yelegar had an impressive end of season last year when he went on to clinch both the Bangladesh International Challenge and the Nepal International Series titles. But he has not been able to replicate that form this year yet.
Among others, Arun Kumar Ashok Kumar too went down fighting, 21-18, 8-21, 5-21 to Japan’s Koki Watanabe. Hemanth M Gowda was the third Indian who lost in the first round. He could not put up much resistance against Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn and lost 9-21, 7-21.
Verma brothers pull out
Sameer Verma and Sourabh Verma too were supposed to participate in this event and were seeded eighth and 11th respectively. But they opted out after reaching the latter stages of the Indian Senior National Championships that ended on Tuesday.
While Sourabh went on to win his second Nationals title, 2016 champion Sameer went down in the semi-finals to his elder brother.
