Upcoming 6’3″ shuttler Sanskar Saraswat of Jodhpur, scored a stunning upset of senior compatriot Kiran George at the Super 100 Vietnam Open to majestic quarters on Thursday.

The trainee at Guwahati’s NCE who had last made headlines winning the Super 100 in the Assamese capital back in December, while starting from qualifying rounds won the three-setter from being 14-16 down in the decider for a 21-12, 10-21, 21-18 win.

Kiran, 26, is ranked World No 51, while Sanskar, 20 who is ranked No 188 and has struggled to make headway since the Guwahati podium, is still in transition after deciding to focus on singles for the last 7-8 months.

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“He has developed patience in fighting out for points in the last few months,” His father and first coach Raj Saraswat, said. Trained by Malaysian coach Shankar and Korean Park Tae Sang at the Guwahati facility, the intense strength training Sanskar had been put through in the gym, is beginning to yield results, Sr Saraswat said. “Psychologically, dealing with every point and waiting for his chances and not rushing is something he has learnt. He was 13-14 down in the decider. But he showed patience to win from there against a player who is very good,” the father added.

While gym-work has pulled back his court movement a tad, Sanskar is expected to get stronger in endurance and hid father also noticed that the smash jump from his 6’3″ frame and landing is looking sturdier and stable. “He hadn’t been getting good results for 6-7 months. So I told him to focus on his game and not worry about results aniseed it as his downfall,” he added.

At the International Challenge in Vietnam back in March, Sanskar had won the opener against lower-ranked Lei Ci Fu of Taiwan, but gone on to lose, in what tended to be a trend in his losses. “At NCE, he is getting personalised focus from coach Tan who is technically super, and his physical fitness from Shankar sir. After winning Guwahati, there was pressure to keep winning titles so he fell back. But I told him to take it one match at a time,” said the father who played cricket and badminton, but ended up busting both knees on the Old Bijlighar cement courts of Jodhpur.

“This win against the 6th seed will be a major confidence booster for Sanskar,” Sr Saraswat says.

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Sanskar forms the new bunch of Men’s singles from India ho are jostling in the Super 100 bracket and beginning to make a mark alongside Rounak Chouhan, Tharun Mannepalli, Satish Karunakaran and Rithvik Sanjeevi.

In women’s singles, Isharani Baruah scored an impressive 21-18, 21-16 win over Goh Jin Wei while Tanvi Sharma, Rakshitha Sree Santosh and Malvika Bansod defeated lower ranked opponents to progress to quarters. HS Prannoy, seeded third, and playing the event to earn match practice ahead of Asiad, also advanced.