Subhankar Dey is yet to prove himself in international competition. But on Wednesday, he gained attention of the few die-hard Indian badminton fans in the stands of the K. D. Jadhav hall by taking out World No. 9 Tommy Sugiarto from the Indian Open here.
Sugiarto, seeded four, was cruising to a possible straight-game victory when leading 21-14, 19-12. What followed was a dream comeback by the Indian. Sensing that he had nothing more to lose by playing aggressively, Dey attacked at every opportunity and cashed in on a somewhat casual response from the Indonesian.
Gradually, Dey closed the gap and made it 19-19. Though Sugiarto held match-point, Dey gave nothing away and won three points to force the decider. An upbeat Dey broke away from 8-8 and clinched the third game at 21-11 to advance.
The other upset, though of a lesser degree, came when H. S. Prannoy accounted for eighth seeded Thai Kataphon Wancharoen 14-21, 21-18, 21-14.
Kidambi Srikanth lived dangerously and just about escaped Sugiarto fate. The leading Indian had to rally from 11-17 in the decider against Hong Kong’s Wong Wing ki Vincent to survive.
Similarly, Parupalli Kashyap survived against another Hong Kong player Lee Cheuk Yiu to win 14-21, 21-18, 21-10. Meanwhile, Sameer Verma and B. Sai Praneeth won to set up their much-awaited quarterfinal-clash.
In women's singles, P. V. Sindhu opened her campaign with an easy win, as did former World champion Ratchanok Intanon, 2012 Olympic champion Li Xuerui and her Chinese compatriot He Bingjiao. Interestingly, Xuerui and Bingjiao clash in their pre-quarterfinal on Thursday, with the winner setting up a possible meeting with Sindhu in the semifinal.
Important first-round results (Indians unless stated):
Men singles: Sameer Verma bt Rasmus Gemke (Den) 21-18, 21-12; B. Sai Praneeth bt Kartikey Sharma 22-24, 21-13, 21-8; Sitthikom Thammasin (Tha) bt R. M. V. Gurusaidutt 21-18, 21-11; K. Srikanth bt Wong Wing Ki Vincent (Hkg) 21-16, 18-21. 21-19; P. Kashyap bt Lee Cheuk Yiu (Hkg) 14-21, 21-18, 21-10; Wang Tzu Wei (Tpe) bt Ajay Jayaram 21-15, 21-18; Shubhankar Dey bt Tommy Sugiarto (Ina) 14-21, 22-20, 21-11; H.S. Prannoy bt Kataphon Wangcharoen (Tha) 14-21, 21-18, 21-14.
Women singles: Ratchanok Intanon (Tha) bt Uttejitha Rao 21-9, 21-6; Beiwen Zhang (USA) bt Ksenia Polikarpova (Isr) 21-19, 21-6; Li Xuerui (Chn) bt Nitchaon Jindapol (Tha) 21-17, 21-11; He Bingjiao (Chn) bt Prashi Joshi 21-12, 21-15; Riya Mookerjee bt Phittayaporn Chaiwan (Tha) 21-17, 21-15; P. V. Sindhu bt Mugdha Agrey 21-8, 21-13.
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