BWF Super 300 Swiss Open: Sankar Muthusamy beats World No. 2 Anders Antonsen; enters quarterfinals

Sankar Muthusamy creates biggest upset of his career by defeating World No.2 Anders Antonsen at BWF Swiss Open.

India’s Sankar Muthusamy has been playing hard and working harder with his coach Aravindan Samiappan for the last two years but somehow the results weren’t coming.

Everything came together in Basel on Thursday (March 20, 2025) night when the 21-year-old, a qualifier, from Chennai created the biggest upset of his career with a huge 18-21, 21-12, 21-5 win over World No.2 Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF Super 300 Swiss Open in Basel, Switzerland.

Speaking to The Hindu on Friday (March 21, 2025) from Basel, Sankar, ranked World No. 64, said: “I’ve been playing well in the Swiss Open, being quite sharp with my strokes more than usual. The win over Antonsen is a huge confidence booster. Of course, all wins are equally good. In fact, the way I’ve played in the tournament against M. Tharun (in the second qualifying round) and in the round of 32 against Magnus Johannesen of Denmark, has been solid. The wins against the two players were equally important.”

On the quarterfinal match against Christo Popov of France, world ranked 32, at 12.40 a.m. on Saturday (March 22, 2025), Sankar said, “Christo’s game is similar to mine in terms of defence. I am looking forward to the match,” said Sankar, who was omitted from the TOPS Developmental Group, a few months back.

Aravindan was thrilled with his ward’s performance. “It’s huge. It has not sunk in. Actually, we have been working for the last two years on his offence. When he reached the quarterfinals of the Thailand Masters this year, we knew he’ll get the break. He had a few niggles on his right knee from last year, which didn’t turn out to be great. We hope the victory over Antonsen will propel him. Hopefully he will crack the World’s top-50 soon,” he said.