Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian has surpassed the first hurdle in his quest to qualify for the main draw of the Orleans Masters Super 300 badminton tournament in Orleans, France, on Tuesday. The 19-year-old Indian eked out a straight-game (21-17, 21-17) victory over Ade Resky Dwicahyo of Azerbaijan in the day’s first match.
The world no. 101 Indian needed 48 minutes to wrap up the match against the Indonesian-origin Azerbaijani shuttler.
Sankar, an upcoming player in the Indian men’s singles circuit, came into the spotlight when he won the silver medal at the World Junior Championships in 2022.
A victory in the qualifier quarterfinal later today will confirm his place in the main draw.
In the other men’s singles qualifier, Meiraba Luwang Maisnam went down fighting to Fabian Roth of Germany in a three-setter (21-12, 21-18, 21-17) in an hour and eight minutes.
Later today, women’s doubles pairs of Simran Singhi-Ritika Thaker, Ashwini Ponnappa-Tanisha Crasto, and N. Sikki Reddy-Arathi Sara Sunil will be fighting for a place in the second round.
In men’s doubles, M.R. Arjun and Dhruv Kapila will be in action in their first-round match, while Tanisha Crasto and Sai Pratheek will be playing a qualifier on court three.
Aakarshi Kashyap is the other Indian who will be competing in the women’s singles qualifier.