India’s Mithun Manjunath stunned the eighth seed Magnus Johannessen of Denmark in the opening round of the men’s singles badminton event at the Thailand Masters 2026 in Patumwan on Wednesday.
The 27-year-old Mithun Manjunath, 60th in the badminton rankings, knocked out world No. 41 Johannessen with a 21-12, 9-21, 21-17 win at the Super 300 event.
Mithun dominated the first game before Johannessen responded strongly in the second to force a decider.
The third game turned into a tense battle, with both players locked at 17-17 before the Indian badminton player reeled off four straight points to close out a win against the higher-ranked opponent.
Mithun will also have his task cut out in the second round, when he faces off against the Paris 2024 bronze medallist Lee Zii Jia of Malaysia.
Another encouraging performance came in women’s singles, where Rakshitha Ramraj pushed top seed Supanida Katethong of Thailand to three games before losing 21-18, 13-21, 14-21.
Anmol Kharb, ranked 51st, progressed after a commanding 21-12, 21-12 win over world No. 66 Lo Sin Yan of Hong Kong China, setting up a next-round clash with fifth seed Huang Yu-Hsun of Chinese Taipei in the next round.
Kiran George added to India’s positive results with a 21-15, 21-9 win over Malaysia’s Aidil Sholeh in the men’s singles, booking a meeting with Indonesia’s Prahdiska Shujiwo.
Malvika Bansod was knocked out in women’s singles after losing to compatriot Isharani Baruah 21-12, 21-8. Baruah will face the second seed Sung Shuo Yun of Chinese Taipei, next.
In another women’s singles all-Indian affair, Devika Sihag came through a tough encounter against Ashmita Chaliha, winning 21-17, 21-16.
Shriyanshi Valishetty fought back from a game down to defeat Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang 14-21, 21-13, 21-19 while Tharun Mannepalli won 22-20, 21-17 against Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen.
However, several Indians bowed out despite strong efforts. Aakarshi Kashyap went down to Japan’s third seed Hina Akechi 21-17, 21-18 in a closely contested match.
Tanya Hemanth exited the women’s singles after a straight-games loss to the seventh seed, Julie Jakobsen. Tasnim Mir lost to fifth seed Huang Yu-Hsun while Anupama Upadhyaya was beaten by Peng Yu Wei in two tight games.
In the men’s singles, Priyanshu Rajawat narrowly missed out against Canada’s fourth seed Brian Yang, losing 21-15, 13-21, 20-22, while Sankar Subramanian was edged out by fifth-seeded French Arnaud Merkle 21-13, 14-21, 21-19. Manraj Singh also went down to Zhu Xuan Chen in the men’s singles.
India’s challenge in the mixed doubles ended in the first round after Dhruv Rawat-Maneesha K and Ashith Surya-Amrutha Pramuthesh lost their respective matches.