Sankar stuns world No. 2, Treesa-Gayatri in semis

India’s Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian caused a major upset by knocking out world No. 2 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in a thrilling three-game contest to reach the men’s singles quarterfinals of the Swiss Open Super 300 badminton tournament.

The 21-year-old from Tamil Nadu, a silver medallist at the 2022 World Junior Championships and currently ranked 64th in the world, put up an impressive display of defence to defeat the three-time World Championships medallist 18-21 21-12 21-5 in a 66-minute contest.

He will face world No. 31 Christo Popov of France, a 2019 World Junior Championships silver medallist, next.

Later, Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand stormed into the women’s semifinals with a clinical 21-18 21-14 win over Hong Kong’s Pui Lam Yeung and Nga Ting Yeung.

The Indian pair was not under any real pressure during the match, except when the Hong Kong players managed to make it 15-15 from 9-13 in the first game. But Treesa and Gayatri quickly built an 18-15 lead and then bagged the first game.

Among other Indians, Isharani Baruah put up a valiant fight but lost 19-21 21-18 18-21 to China’s Han Qian Xi in 63 minutes. Anupama Upadhyaya was ousted by Indonesia’s world No. 11 Putri Kusuma Wardani as she lost 17-21 19-21.