Thailand Masters: Young Indian shuttlers eye strong start

A crop of young Indian shuttlers will aim to seize an early-season opportunity when they begin their campaigns at the Thailand Masters, a USD 250,000 event, beginning in Bangkok on Tuesday.

The tournament offers a valuable opportunity for the likes of Priyanshu Rajawat, Kiran George and Tharun Mannepalli to test themselves and attempt deep runs at the Super 300 level, the second-lowest tier within the main Badminton World Federation World Tour structure.

Thomas Cup-winning squad member Rajawat, who claimed the Orleans Masters Super 300 title in 2023, will open his campaign against fourth seed Brian Yang.

Kiran will face Malaysia’s Sholeh Aidil in the opening round.
| Photo Credit:
SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

The 23-year-old from Dhar returned to competitive action after a five-month layoff due to a knee injury at the Syed Modi India International Super 300 in November 2025.

Seventh seed Kiran, a former Odisha Masters Super 100 champion and a quarterfinalist at the 2025 India Open Super 750, will face Malaysia’s Sholeh Aidil in the opening round.

Mannepalli, a gold medallist at the 37th National Games in 2023 and a silver medallist at the 2023 Senior National Championships, along with former world junior No. 1 S. Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, are also part of India’s next generation of singles players on the BWF Tour.

While Mannepalli, who reached his maiden BWF Super 300 semifinal at the Macau Open last year, will take on Thailand’s Kantaphon Wangcharoen, 2022 World Junior Championships silver medallist Subramanian will face fifth seed Arnaud Merkle.

Former national champion Mithun Manjunath has been handed a tough first-round match against eighth seed Magnus Johannesen, while youngster Manraj Singh will open against a qualifier.

In the women’s singles, former national champion Anmol Kharb, who won titles in Belgium and Poland in 2024, will face Hong Kong’s Lo Sin Yan Happy. The 19-year-old is a member of India’s historic gold medal-winning team at the 2024 Badminton Asia Team Championships. She is coming into the tournament after stretching former world champion Nozomi Okuhara at the Indonesia Masters last week.

Anmol Kharb, who won titles in Belgium and Poland in 2024, will face Hong Kong’s Lo Sin Yan Happy in the opening round.
| Photo Credit:
AP

Among others, Rakshitha Ramraj has been drawn against top seed Supanida Katethong, while Aakarshi Kashyap will take on third seed Hina Akechi. Tasnim Mir will play fifth seed Huang Yu-Hsun, and Shriyanshi Valishetty meets Canada’s Wen Yu Zhang.

Tanya Hemanth is set to face seventh seed Julie Dawall Jakobsen, while an all-Indian clash between Isharani Baruah and Malvika Bansod is also on the cards. Devika Sihag and Anupama Upadhyaya are slated to face qualifiers in their respective first-round matches.

In the women’s doubles, Ashwini Bhat K. and Shikha Gautam will open against the fifth-seeded Indonesian pair of Febriana Dwipuji Kusuma and Meilysa Trias Puspitasari. Another Indian pair, Rutaparna Panda and Swetaparna Panda, has been drawn against seventh-seeded Chinese duo Bao Li Jing and Li Yi Jing.

India will also feature in the mixed doubles, with Ashith Surya and Amrutha Pramuthesh set to face Spain’s Ruben Garcia and Lucia Rodriguez. In another tie, Dhruv Rawat and Maneesha K. will take on the Chinese Taipei pair of He Zhi-Wei and Liang Ching Sun.

Pruthvi Krishnamurthy Roy and Sai Pratheek K will face a stiff opening-round test in the men’s doubles when they take on fourth-seeded Malaysians Nur Mohd Azriyn Ayub and Tan Wee Kiong.

Published on Jan 26, 2026