Badminton News: India’s Sankar Muthusamy clinched the silver medal after losing in back-to-back men’s singles final to China Taipei’s Kuo Kuan Lin at the BWF World Junior Championships on Sunday.
The 18-year-old from Tamil Nadu lost 14-21, 20-22 to Kuan Lin in the final 48-minute clash.
The former world number one joined fellow Indians Aparna Popat (1996), Saina Nehwal (2006) and Siril Verma (2015) to claim silver at the prestigious tournament.
He is the second Indian men’s badminton to reach the final, Sankar’s defense could not withstand the relentless attacks from Taiwan, who used their strength to confuse India.
Kuan Lin pounced on his opponent’s weak return and delivered several devastating smashes to dominate the rally. India’s fourth seed continued to struggle and even saved six match points, but that didn’t happen as he came second.
Southpaw Sankar Muthusamy seemed to be playing his game but the Taiwanese was quicker and managed to find a gap with his abrupt return. The result was Lin quickly lining up for an 11-9 lead.
Sankar seeks to involve his rivals in the rallies. It worked until he managed to equalize at 13-13 after engaging Lin in a clean duel.
But a few errors from him in India and Kuan Lin’s jump smash took him to a 20-14 lead, and Taiwan was sealed when Sankar came on again.
After the change of pitch, Lin continued to dominate the match with his strength play, leading 4-0. However, the Chennai player managed to equalize at 5-5.
Trailing 7-10, the Indian unleashed a powerful smash to show the first real signs of dominance, but Kuan Lin managed to add a two-point lead at the break.
Sankar Muthusamy tried to keep the shuttlecock in play to knock out his opponent, but Kuan Lin was still one step ahead, landing with precision.
Kuan Lin, in the end, caught six match points but Sankar wrote a sensational recovery, saving all six, to raise hopes of a turnover. But the Taiwanese earned another match point with another smash and capped it all off with a sweeping comeback to claim victory.
Article tags: Sankar Muthusamy, 2022 Junior World Championship
Published by Ligaolahraga.com at https://www.ligaolahraga.com/badminton/sankar-muthusamy-raih-perak-kejuaraan-dunia-junior-2022
