MACAU: India’s Tharun Mannepalli shocked top seed Lee Cheuk Yiu of Hong Kong to enter the quarterfinals of the Macau Open along with compatriot Lakshya Sen 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.
Later, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen fought past Chico Aura Dwi Wardoyo of Indonesia 21-14, 14-21, 21-17 to enter the last-eight stage.
However, Ayush Shetty was ousted after a 18-21, 16-21 loss to Malaysia’s Justin Hoh.
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 the men’s doubles, Pruthvi Roy and K Sai Pratheek lost to fourth-seeded Junaidi Arif and Roy King Yap of Malaysia 18-21, 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.
In the women’s doubles, Priya Konjengbam and Shruti Mishra will tussle against the eighth-seeded Meilysa Puspitasari and Rachel Rose of Indonesia.