Badminton Asia Junior C’ships: Unnati Hooda gets off to a comfortable start in U17 singles

Top seed Unnati Hooda started her campaign in dominating fashion as eight Indians progressed at the end of the opening day Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships 2022, in Nonthaburi, Thailand on Tuesday.

In the U-17 women’s singles round of 64 match, Odisha Open Champion Unnati defeated Japan’s Misato Sasaki 21-11, 21-5 in just 24 minutes. Unnati, who started directly in the round of 64*, will face Indonesia’s Dea Nur Fadilla in the round of 32 match.

In the other U-17 women’s singles match, Anmol Kharb won both her matches to move into the round of 32. First, she defeated Singapore’s Chujei Jennifer 21-11, 21-14 before getting the better of Wening Sabrina of Indonesia 21-19, 21-10. Anmol will next play against Ratnacha Sompoch of Thailand.

Sampriti Pal faced a tough challenge from Keira Indriyan of Indonesia in the U-15 women’s singles round of 128 match. The Indian shuttler won the first game 21-12 but lost the second game to lose 7-21 before making a comeback in the third game to win 21-15 and wrap up the match in 48 minutes. She will square off against Japan’s Ria Haga in the next round.

Jiya Rawat went down fighting against Peeraya Wechawong of Thailand in the U-17 women’s singles round of 64 match as she lost 11-21, 21-14 and 21-10.

In the U-15 men’s singles first round match, three Indian shuttlers – Abhinav Garg, Anish Thoppani and Mohammad Ali Mir – won their respective matches and moved to the round of 64. While Abhinav and Anish won in three games against Thailand’s Chinnapat Seangpan and Japan’s Mahiro Matsumoto respectively, Mohammad defeated Srilanka’s Mihila Jayaweeera 21-19-21-14. All three of them will play their next match on Wednesday.

In the U-17 men’s singles section, Dhruv Negi defeated Singapore’s Nge Joo Jin 21-19, 19-21, 21-17 in a close match that lasted 43 minutes while Ansh Negi lost 20-22, 21-16, 12-21 against Shota Natsuka of Japan in the round of 64 stage.

Later in the day, in the U-17 men’s singles section, Neer Nehwal (10th seed) defeated Zi Shun Kat of Singapore 21-12, 21-17 in 33 minutes. However, Bornil Aakash Changmai and Shantipriya Hazarika lost in their U-15 mixed doubles round of 64 match.

*Corrections and clarifications: Unnati Hooda started in round of 64 instead of 128, and not round of 16 as the article originally mentioned.