World No. 46 Tharun Mannepalli pulled off a stunning upset in the opening round of the Arctic Open 2025, a BWF Super 500 event, held at the Vantaan Energia Areena in Finland on Wednesday.
Mannepalli defeated France’s Toma Junior Popov, seventh seed, in a thrilling three-set battle that lasted an hour and eight minutes.
Tharun bounced back after losing the first game to prevail 11-21, 21-11, 22-20.
Meanwhile, Lakshya Sen had a disappointing outing, losing to fifth seed Kodai Naraoka of Japan 15-21, 17-21 in a 57-minute encounter.
Other Indian shuttlers in the fray including Kidambi Srikanth, Kiran George, and S Subramanian also failed to make an impact.
Srikanth withdrew from the tournament while Kiran George retired just 13 minutes into the game, losing to Japan’s K Watanabe after trailing 10-21, 1-4.
S Subramanian lost to third seed Christo Popov of France 17-21, 11-21 in 44 minutes. A Shetty also lost his opening round match to top seed K Vitidsarn 15-21, 16-21
Later in the day, women’s doubles pair of Kavipriya Selvam and Simran Singhi will play fifth seed Yeung Nga Ting and Yeung Pui Lam.
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