Tharun Mannepalli shocks top seed Lee Cheuk to enter Macau Open quarterfinals

Macau, Jul 31 (PTI) India’s Tharun Mannepalli shocked the top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong to storm into the quarterfinals of the Macau Open, a BWF Super 300 event, here on Thursday.

Tharun rallied splendidly to outwit Lee, a world No. 15, 19-21, 21-14, 22-20 in a match that went past the hour-mark.

The 23-year-old, holder of world No. 47 ranking, now has reached his second quarterfinals of a Super 300 tournament after entering the last eight at the German Open in February.

In the quarterfinals, Tharun will face world No. 87 Hu Zhe An of China.

However, Ayush Shetty was ousted after a 18-21, 16-21 loss to Malaysia’s Justin Hoh.

Later in the day, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will face Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia.

In the women’s singles India’s Rakshitha Ramraj went down against Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand 21-14, 10-21, 11-21 in a match that lasted 51 minutes.

In the mixed doubles, fifth-seeded Indian duo of Dhruv Kapila and Tanisha Crasto lost to Malaysia’s Jimmy Wong and Lai Pei Jing 21-19, 13-21, 18-21.

In later matches, ace second seeded men’s doubles pair of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty will meet Japan’s Kakeru Kumagai and Hiroki Nishi.

The upcoming doubles pair of Pruthvi Roy and K. Sai Pratheek will lock horns with fourth-seeded Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap of Malaysia.

In the women’s doubles, Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra will tussle against the eighth-seeded Meilysa Puspitasari and Rachel Rose of Indonesia. PTI UNG DDV