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Bharath Latheesh grew up admiring Malaysian legend Lee Chong Wei. While 15-year-old Latheesh still has a long way to go before he hopes to join the ranks of world badminton, the Emirati youngster gave him a glimpse of the future on Tuesday.
On the opening day of the KhiladiX.com Dubai 2023 Asian Badminton Championships, Latheesh scored two impressive victories at the Rashid bin Hamdan Hall at the Al Nasr Club.
The rising star of UAE badminton entered the Asian Championships with titles at the Uganda Open and the Spanish Open juniors, beating Iraq’s Yousif Al Humairi 21-9, 21-8 before defeating Iraq’s Salar Bayat. The Iranian team entered the main match of the badminton championship with 21-16, 21-13.
“It feels great to win these matches at the Asian Championships. I was expecting to play well. But I didn’t expect to win easily. So I am happy with today’s win,” Latheesh told reporters after winning the Asian Championships. qualifying round.
With Tuesday’s sweeping victory, Latheesh clashed with world No. 6 Kodai Naraoka of Japan.
“Right now I’m excited to play the next game tomorrow. As I said, it’s a great opportunity to play against the best players in the world. My aim is to give my best tomorrow,” Latheesh said.
Meanwhile, 17-year-old twin brothers Dev Ayyappan and Dhiren Ayyappan of the UAE also won the doubles match against Abdul Hamid Lukman and Gourab Singha of Bangladesh 16-21, 21-15, 21-19.
The top seeds start their game on Wednesday.
Defending champion and world No. 4 Li Zi Jia of Malaysia will hope to get off to a perfect start against world No. 15 Angus Ng Ka Long of Hong Kong on Wednesday.
In women’s singles, China’s Wang Zhiyi will defend her title on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, defending world champion Akane Yamaguchi of Japan and 2019 world champion and two-time Olympic medalist PV Sindhu of India will also kick off their campaigns on Wednesday.
Copyright © 2022 Khaleej Times. all rights reserved. Courtesy of SyndiGate Media Inc. (Syndicate Information).
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