India’s Sankar Muthusamy Enters Semifinal, Confirms Medal

Sankar Muthuswamy has entered the semifinal of Men’s Singles and confirmed a medal for India. He defeated China’s Hu Zhe An in the quarterfinals.

BWF Junior World Badminton Championships: Sankar Muthusamy of India will compete in today’s BIG Semifinal of the World Junior Badminton Championship. 

Sankar will compete against Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratchakul in an effort to change the medal’s color even though India is already guaranteed at least a bronze. 

Hu Zhe An of China was defeated by fourth seed Muthusamy on Friday in the Men’s Singles quarterfinal. The game is set to start at 5:00 PM IST.

Sankar has already won a medal at the Junior Championships, making him the ninth Indian to do so. But he will aim to surpass what Lakshya Sen accomplished in 2018.

He is currently one step away from securing a place in the championship game. Prior to the current competition, the fourth-seeded Sankar held the title of Junior World No. 1 for a short while.

Sankar won in straight games against Singapore’s Remus Neg in the second round of the competition. 

He defeated Basilio Porto in the third round, dropping just nine games, and advanced to the pre-quarterfinals. He didn’t even break a sweat when he defeated Nichakorn Pusri in the fourth round, 21-10, 21-12.

His toughest opponent arrived in the quarterfinal against Hu Zhen of China, who took the second game and forced a third game before Sankar eventually prevailed 18-21, 21-18, 16-21.

Pan Yinlong of China was defeated by Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul in two games, 22-20, 21-19. In the opening round of the competition, he defeated South Korean Park Sung-ju 21-6, 21-17.

Sankar Muthusamy beat second seed Alwi Farhan in the final set to go to the third round, completing the biggest upset of the competition. In the third round, he played Prahdika Shujiwo and lost a game.

Sankar defeated Eogene Ewe 21-18, 21-17 in the 4th round to get to the quarterfinal.