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Kiran George triumphed the men’s title in Polish International where Tasnim Mir and Naren Shankar Iyer won in Belgium Junior.
Indian shuttlers dominated three – Polish International, Belgium Junior, and Guatemala International Series – tournaments abroad on Sunday.
Having hard luck, Samayara Panwar was beaten in the final in the 7th Guatemala International Series.
It was a nice warm-up for Kiran George who is in the Indian team for Thomas Cup which will be held in Denmark upcoming weeks. The 21-year-old won his second international title at Zakopan, a $5000 event when he won against world No. 235 Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore 13-21,21-14, 21-13 in 46 minutes.
He had cold and fever when he was playing, unrelated to Covid-19, Kiran was calm during the week.“I felt weak and had a cold too on reaching the venue on Wednesday. The organizers conducted an RT-PCR test every day. It’s winter in Europe now, I might have got it because of that, maybe,” Kiran said.
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“I’m happy with my performance and even my coach told me I should be reaching the top 50 this season,” said Kiran who has been trained by Dronacharya awardee U Vimal Kumar in Bengaluru at Prakash Padukone Academy since 2014.
In the semifinals, Kiran defeated world No. 215 Collins Valentine Filimon of Austria 21-14. 21-7 and in the quarterfinals, he outclassed 99th ranked Kim Bruun, a Korean-born Danish player, 21-11, 21-15.
In the round of 32, Kiran, ranked 101 in the World, beat 153rd ranked Jonathan Dolan of Ireland 21-18, 23-21 while in the round of 16, the second son of former national champion George Thomas overcame compatriot 138th ranked Kartikey Gulshan Kumar 21-11, 20-22, 21-10 which lasted 55 minutes.
Kiran achieved his first international success when he won JE Wilson International at Accra, Ghana in 2019. The Kerala boy who was world No. 228 then won a $1200 winners cheque and 2500 ranking points.
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