Badminton: Unbeaten Viren reaches HUNDRED Challenge 2025 Men’s Singles pre-quarters

Sri Lanka’s top seed shuttler Viren Nettasinghe reached the pre-quarter-final stage of Men’s Singles at the HUNDRED Sri Lanka International Challenge 2025, which is underway at the St. Joseph’s College Indoor Complex in Darley Road, Colombo.

So far Viren has continued his unblemished run to move forward in the top grade Badminton World Federation sanctioned competition to be held in Sri Lanka this year.

Viren, seeded fourth in the six-day tournament, recorded an inspiring straight win against Naren Iyer of India with set wins of 21/15 and 21/10 to move forward from the Round of 32 stage on Thursday (27) morning.

The youngest Sri Lanka to ever earn a direct qualification to the Paris Olympics 2024, has shown great temperament among top ranked shuttlers vying for the Men’s Singles plum, where the final is set to be played on Sunday, March 2.

Earlier in the Round of 64, Viren had a shaky start against unseeded Henrikho Kho of Indonesia, before bouncing back to record a thrilling 2-1 win after an absorbing third setter on Wednesday (26).

Henrikho surprised Viren by claiming the first set by 21/14, but the Sri Lankan made a remarkable comeback in the second set to record a 21/15 win for an equaliser.

With the deciding third set proving crucial, Viren held his nerves to overcome the refining Indonesian 22/20 after a grueling battle.