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World Junior Badminton Championships 2022: India's Sankar Muthusamy clinches silver medal

Earlier, in the semifinals on Saturday (October 29), Sankar had defeated Thailand's Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul 21-13, 21-15 to assure himself of at least a silver medal as he reached the title clash.

Sankar Muthusamy

Bengaluru, October 30: India's young shuttler Sankar Muthusamy fought hard before settling for silver in teh final of the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Junior Badminton Championships in Santander, Spain.

In the final on on Sunday (October 30) to Chinese Taipei's Kuo Kuan Lin 14-21, 20-22.

But it was still a great effort from Sankar.

World Junior Badminton Championships 2022: India's Sankar Muthusamy enters finalWorld Junior Badminton Championships 2022: India's Sankar Muthusamy enters final

Earlier, in the semifinals on Saturday (October 29), Sankar had defeated Thailand's Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul 21-13, 21-15 to assure himself of at least a silver medal as he reached the title clash.

In the process, Sankar had become just the fourth Indian after Aparna Popat, Saina Nehwal and Siril Verma to reach the BWF World Junior Championships final.

With a BWF wod ranking of No.4, Sankar was the highest-ranked in Indian men's singles player in the tournament.

Earlier he recorded a convincing 21-4 21-5 win over Spain's Basilio Porto in the round of 32 and followed it up with a gritty win over Thailand's Nachakorn Pusri in the round-of-16.

But his most-impressive win came in the quarterfinals where he beat China's Hu Zhen An 21-18, 8-21, 21-16 in a tough three-game battle.

For the records, the last Indian to win a medal (bronze) at the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships was Lakshya Sen in 2018.

Saina Nehwal is the only Indian to have won a gold (in 2008).

Sankar Muthusamy

Knowing well that Sankar can play marathon matches, Kuo clearly had an aggressive strategy going into the final. But the Indian countered it well in the opening game to fight back from 6-10 down to make it 13-13.

However, Kuo used his deceptive strokes to keep his opponent on toes to clinch eight of the next nine points to draw first blood.

It looked like the Taipei shuttler would race to the crown after opening up a 20-14 lead. But Sankar fought back and the champion ended up making many errors to raise the Indian's hopes,

But Kuo found another gear at 20-20 to clinch the next two points with his big smashes and win the title.

The Indian fourth seed Indian saved six match points in the second game, but Kuo proved too good for him.

Story first published: Sunday, October 30, 2022, 22:04 [IST]
Other articles published on Oct 30, 2022