Odisha Open | Mithun takes out seventh seed Wei
The Hindu
Indian men sweep quarterfinal spots, women miss one berth
Upcoming talent Mithun Manjunath knocked out seventh seeded Malaysian Cheam June Wei as Indians Indians captured all quarterfinal spots in men’s singles in the $75,000 Odisha Open badminton tournament at Cuttack on Thursday.
Mithun, after impressive showings in the India Open and Syed Modi India International this month, is among the serious title-contenders in the grossly depleted field. He marched on following a 21-11, 21-18 victory in 40 minutes. He now faces another exciting prospect, Priyanshu Rajawat.
In the other quarterfinals, Kaushal Dharmamer will play Abhyansh Singh, third seed Subhankar Dey meets Kiran George and Ansal Yadav takes on Tharun Mannepalli.
He has worn India’s blues, albeit in an Under-19 World Cup, with K.L. Rahul, Mayank Agarwal, Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat as his teammates. He has proudly adorned the Lion’s Crest — the famed Mumbai cricket logo — in all three formats. He has played with Yuvraj Singh, against Virat Kohli and Rahul Dravid and has the likes of Rahul and Joe Root in his illustrious list of dismissals. He is also a software developer for an IT giant, based in California. Virtually every middle-class Indian over the last three decades at some stage dreams of being either a cricketer or an IT professional. Saurabh Netravalkar has been combining two dreams, even after relocating to USA to pursue academics at the prestigious Cornell University in 2015.
Unlike most of the Olympic-bound athletes, who opt to train abroad before the big event, boxer Amit Panghal prefers training in home conditions prior to Paris 2024. A former World championships silver medallist and a World No. 1, Panghal won the 51kg quota place in the only chance he got. He wants to follow his own plans to script success in Paris.
The other men’s semifinal Friday is Norway’s Casper Ruud, twice the runner-up in Paris — to Rafael Nadal in 2022 and to Novak Djokovic in 2023 — against Germany’s Alexander Zverev, a finalist at the 2020 U.S. Open, an Olympic gold medalist and into the final four at Roland Garros for the fourth consecutive year.