Tharun Mannepalli’s fairy-tale run at the Macau Open, a BWF World Tour Super 300 event, ended with a loss in the men’s singles semifinals on Saturday.
Malaysia’s Justin Hoh defeated the 23-year-old Tharun 19-21, 21-16, 21-16 in a match which lasted an hour and 21 minutes.
Later in the day, Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen will face Indonesia’s Alwi Farhan in the second men’s singles semifinal.
World No. 47 Tharun raced to an 11-6 lead in the opener but a few unforced errors kept Hoh in the hunt and the Malaysian levelled the scores at 18-all. Nevertheless, the Indian held his nerve to close the game.
In a closely-contested second game, Hoh led for the most part but Tharun was within striking distance. However, from 17-16, World No. 45 Hoh won four straight points to take the contest to a decider.
Tharun struggled to make the necessary adjustment to tackle the drift in the third game and lost seven points in a row from 9-9. From there, the Malaysian managed to keep the Indian at bay and progress to his maiden BWF World Tour event final.