Third edition of Yonex Sunrise Odisha Masters S100 have been concluded successfully on 15th Dec 2024 at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor stadium, Cuttack.
China the second successful nation behind India in tournament history claimed three titles in Women Singles, Mixed doubles and Men doubles this time , finishing runners up in Women doubles category.
India and Japan triumphed in one sector each, Men singles and Women doubles respectively.
Unseeded young chinese pair of Gao jia Xuan/Tang Rui Zhi clinched Mixed title defeating scratch Singaporean 🇸🇬 pair of Hee Yong/Jin Yu . Gao/Tang eliminated four seeded pair including top seed and home favourite karunakaran/Variyath on their route to the crown.
Men Doubles sector brought another reason to smile for chinese fans as 7th seed Huang Di/Liu Yang survived in a close final against Japan lasting an hour and fourteen minutes, scoreline suggesting 21-13 19-21 27-25 .
Women Singles final saw former world rank 14 and Asian bronze medalist Cai Yan Yan defeated Indian youngster Tanvi Sharma 21-16 21-14 making her back to back S100 win in past two weeks at Guwahati and Cuttack.
Rithvik Sanjeevi Satish Kumar clinched Men Singles title over Tharun Mannepalli (21-16 21-18) in an all Indian final.
This win ensured India’s undefeated track in MS section from inaugural session Kiran George (2022), Karunakaran (2023) and Ritvik (2024) .
Nanako Hara/Ruko Kiyose won against higher ranked chinese Keng/Wang 21-19 21-11 to bring Japan’s first Women doubles title in tournament’s history.
Home Super-100 tournament holds diverse outcome for Indian badminton.
The Bright Side
21years old Rithvik who own Telangana IC last month, played the tournament of his life this week. Being unseeded the world no.78 defeated senior Mithun Manjunath(R32) , Hu Zhe An the junior world champion(QFs) and 8th seed Teeraratsakul (SFs) chasing the title in a draw included Jason
Teh(Syed Modi winner) ,two former champions Kiran and Karunakaran.
Tanvi Sharma on the other hand became the youngest ever finalist in a S100 event at the age of 15
Tanvi defeated all higher ranked opponent – Anupama(WR44), Saloni Mehta (109),Anmol(78), Shriyanshi(95) before going down to Cai Yan in final showdown.
Fans shiging of relief after seeing healthy fight between youngsters like Anmol,Tanvi, Shriyanshi and Anupama .
The Flaws
Kiran George after a progressive 2024 season underperformed whole December raising the consistency issue. After a semi-final finish in Syed Modi Ishaan Bhatnagar/Sankar Udayakumar pair saw two early exits in lower grade tournaments.
Women doubles top seed Panda Sisters yet again failed to perform even in their home court.
Despite an impressive run Tanvi looked clueless in a quality match on final day, lacking of experience she totally outplayed by the chinese 🇨🇳 .
Badminton actions will resume next year with Malaysia open S1000. It will be a fresh new start.
