Indian shuttlers storm into pre-quarters

Indian shuttlers Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda and Rakshitha Sree Ramraj overcame some anxious moments to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Junior Championships here on Wednesday.

Top seed Tanvi defeated Oei Winarto of Indonesia 15-12, 15-7, Unnati, seeded 8th, beat Alice Wang of US 15-8, 15-5, and 10th seed Rakshitha recovered from a game down to outwit Singapore’s Aaliyah Zakaria 11-15, 15-5, 15-8.

The lower half of the girls’ singles draw was thrown open after defending world junior champion Xu Wen Jing of China was knocked out.

Japan’s Yuzuno Watanabe, who had won the India Junior International Grand Prix in Pune earlier this year, got the better of the third seed 15-12, 11-15, 15-10 in a match that lasted 50 minutes.

While the girls continued their march towards a possible medal, only Gnana Dattu TT will carry India’s hopes in the boy’s singles category after overcoming 15th seed Suryaksh Rawat 11-15, 15-6, 15-11 in an all-Indian round of 32 match at the National Centre of Excellence.

The mixed doubles combination of Bhavya Chhabra and Vishakha Toppo, girls’ doubles combination of Aanya Bisht and Angel Punera along with Vennala K and Reshika U and boy’s doubles combination of Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu also advanced to the next round.

Chhabra and Toppo, the 14th-seeds, had to quell a late fightback from Denmark’s Aske Romer and Jasmin Willis to register a 15-13, 15-11 win.

In girls’ doubles, 16th seed Aanya and Angel got the better of Hui Hsin Huang and Pei Chun Tsai of Chinese Taipei 16-14, 12-15, 15-5, while Vennala and Reshika defeated Sayaka Enomoto and Miku Yashima of Japan 15-8, 15-10.

Later in the day, Bhargav and Viswa fought back after losing the opening game to beat Shunki Hagiwara and Mahiro Matsumoto of Japan 11-15, 15-10, 15-10 in 42 minutes. The sixth seeded Indians will now face Yi Hsuan Chen and Chun-Yen Chu of Chinese Taipei.

India has fielded a 25-member contingent and girls singles players are favourites to add to the tally of 11 individual medals so far in the history of the competition.