Haarlem (The Netherlands): Indian shuttler Tasnim Mir pulled off a sensational victory against top seed Benyapa Aimsaard of Thailand to enter women singles quarter-finals at Dutch Junior International tournament here Saturday.
Tasnim, who won gold at the Asia Junior Badminton Championships and Dubai International last year, put up a brilliant effort in the decider to outclass world no. 132 Aimsaard 21-9, 17-21, 21-15 in a thrilling last -16 match which lasted 45 minutes.
Interestingly, Aimsaard came into this match without losing a single game in the tournament. India No. 1 Tasnim will now face winner of the clash between compatriot Treesa Jolly and Aisha Galuh Maheswari of Indonesia.
In the men’s singles last-16 match, Rohan Gurbani put up a gritty performance before going down fighting against Russian Georgii Lebedev.
After taking a 1-0 lead, the Indian could not hold his nerves as the opponent grabbed the next two hard-fought games to complete a 18-21, 21-19, 21-18 win.
In the mixed doubles, both the Indian pairs suffered defeats in their third round matches.
While Sankar Prasad Udayakumar and Treesa Jolly went down 19-21, 17-21 against the Korean pair of Hak Joo Lee and A Yeon Yoo, Edwin Joy and Shruti Mishra also suffered a 19-21, 21-23 loss against another Korean duo of Jae Hyeon Kim and Bo Eun Koo.
PTI