Guwahati, Oct 14 (IANS) Medal hopefuls Tanvi Sharma, Unnati Hooda and Rakshitha Sree R launched their BWF World Junior Championships campaigns with comfortable victories, while all four boys’ singles players also sailed through the next round at the National Centre of Excellence here on Tuesday.
Top-seeded Tanvi thrashed Poland’s Wiktoria Kaletka 15-2, 15-1 in just 11 minutes while eighth-seed Unnati eased to a 15-8, 15-9 win over Hong Kong’s Liu Hoi Anna in 23 minutes. Rakshitha Sree then overcame the challenge of Lucy Yang of Canada 15-5, 15-9 to get her campaign going.
Indonesia’s Thalita Wiryawan, seeded seventh, was the highest girls’ singles player to be knocked out. Chinese Taipei’s Shu-Yu Wen fought back from a game down to beat 12-15, 15-7, 15-8 in 34 minutes.
BWF president Khunying Patama Leeswadtrakul also visited the National Centre of Excellence and interacted with the Badminton Association of India officials and watched some exciting matches on Tuesday.
In the boys’ singles category, 11th seed Rounak Chouhan defeated Sri Lanka’s Thisath Rupathunga 15-3, 15-6, 15th seed Suryaksh Rawat beat Yigitcan Erol of Turkiye 15-5, 15-8 while Lalthazuala Hmar got the better of Rylan Tan of USA 15-11, 15-5. A few hours later, Gnana Dattu TT joined his teammates in the round of 32, beating Brazil’s Joaquim Mendonca 15-10, 15-13.
In the next round, Gnana Dattu will face Suryaksh for a place in the pre-quarterfinals.
The only reversal for India in the singles category came when Asian Junior championships bronze medallist Vennala K could not find her rhythm and went down 6-15, 5-15 against fifth seed Tonrug Saeheng of Thailand in the second round.
In the mixed doubles events, 14th seed Bhavya Chhabra and Vishakha Toppo and C Lalramsanga and Taarini Suri advanced to the next round in contrasting manner, while two Indian pairs were knocked out.
Bhavya and Vishakha struggled to drive home the advantage in the second game but recovered well to beat Indonesia’s Ghian Sofyan and Salsabila Aulia 15-4, 13-15, 15-5 while C Lalramsanga and Taarini Suri dominated the second game to win 15-12, 15-5.
Also advancing to the next round were Mansa and Gayatri Rawat, who had an easy 15-3, 15-5 win over Alya Elghandour and Fatema Rabie of Egypt while Aanya Bisht and Angel Punera got the better of Poland’s Wiktoria Kaletka and Olga Szwarnowiecka 15-12, 15-11 in girls’ doubles.
In boys’ doubles, sixth seeds Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu defeated Andrej Macek and Andrej Suchy of Slovakia 15-7, 15-6 in the boys’ doubles second round.
Later in the day, Bhavya and Sumith AR saved a match point but could not avoid a 12-15, 15-10, 16-14 defeat against the Danish combination of Philip Boe and Salomon Thomasen.
–IANS
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