Bengaluru, Aug 18: Malnad Falcons opened their account with a fine comeback victory over favourites Mandya Bulls to log six points against their rival's tally of one point in the Super League stage of the Grand Prix Badminton League being played at the Karnataka Badminton Association here on Thursday.
Bulls' Ananya Praveen upset the fancied Drithi Yateesh to put them ahead while their men's doubles team of Asith Surya and Madhusudan beat the pair of Pruthvi K Roy and Venkatesh Prasad to make it 2-0.
Falcons' icon player Mithun Manjunath grabbed two points in the men's singles winning their trump tie to restore parity. In the biggest upset match of the tournament so far, Shamanth Rao Kidiyoor and Drithi Yateesh pulled off a brilliant win against the pair of Sai Pratheek and Ananya Praveen in the mixed doubles which was called as a trump match by the Bulls.
Mithun, Pruthvi and Shamanth then jelled together to grab the three points at stake in the Super match to close out the tie at 6-1.
Results:
Malnad Falcons bt Mandya Bulls 6-1
WS: Dhrithi Yatheesh lost to Ananya Praveen 15-12, 12-15, 10-15; MD: Pruthvi Roy / Venkatesh Prasad lost to Ashith Surya / Madhusudhn M 5-15, 15-8, 12-15; MS: Mithun Manjunath (Trump) bt Anirudh Deshpande 15-7, 15-7; MXD: Shamanth Kidiyoor / Dhrithi Yateesh bt Sai Pratheek / Ananya Praveen (Trump) 13-15, 15-11, 15-14; SM: Pruthvi Roy / Mithun Manjunath / Shamanth Kidiyoor bt Ashith Surya / Sai Pratheek / Madhusudhn M 21-18
Player of the tie: Pruthvi K Roy
Source: Media Release