Asia junior championship: U-17 Shuttlers Jayant Rana, Ayush Raj Gupta, Varun Kapur enter QF

Indian shuttlers Jayant Rana, Ayush Raj Gupta and Varun Kapur reached the quarter-finals of under-15 men’s singles competition of the Asia Junior Championship at Yangon, Myanmar on Thursday, PTI reported.

Rana prevailed over Malaysia’s Anson Cheong, eighth seed, 21-15, 17-21, 21-12 while Gupta beat Malaysia’s Zhen Yi Ong 21 -17, 17-21 21-11. Kapur thrashed Thailand’s Panitchaphon Teeraratsakul 21,-13 21-12.

Siddhanth Gupta, however, suffered a 16-21, 21-18, 13-21 loss to Japan’s Riki Takei, the fifth seed in the in the round of 16. He had defeated Vietnam’s Thanh Dat Bui 21-18, 21-13 earlier in the day.

Third seed Samiya Imad Farooqui and Aashi Rawat also entered the final eight in under-15 women’s singles. Farooqui defeated Chinese Taipei’s Lin Tzu-Yun 21-10, 21-16 and Rawat defeated Indonesia’s Ester Nurumi Tri Wardoyo 14-21, 21- 14, 21-16.

None of the Indian men progressed to the quarter-finals in under-17 category as Maisnam Meiraba Luwang and Aakash Yadav lost in their third round games. In under-17 women’s singles category, Malvika lost 17-21, 19-21 to Chinese Taipei’s third seed Hung En-Tzu in the third round whereas second seed Aakarshi Kashyap lost 18-21, 16-21 to Japan’s Riko Gunji.

Earlier Meiraba defeated Japan’s Takumi Shibata 21-23, 21-11, 21-13. Amit Rathore and Sathish Kumar Karunakaran too, bowed out of the tournament.

Ritika Thaker, the fourth seed in the women’s U-17 singles category, lost to Hsieh Hsin Yu of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 18-21. Earlier in the day, Gupta had trounced Sri Lanka’s Viren Nettasinghe 21-7, 21-12, Rana prevailed over Chakkaphat Bokhat of Thailand with a convincing 21-7, 21-17 win. Kapur, seeded second, saw off Hu Yu Chi of Chinese Taipei.

However, Punshiba Yengkhom lost 17-21, 21-11, 13-21 to seventh seeded Indonesian Mawardi Putra Damas, while fourth seeded Vikas Yadav went down fighting 9-21, 21-11, 17-21 to Muhammad Fazriq Mohamad Razif.

Kavipriya Selvam, playing in the women’s under-15 singles, overpowered Thailand’s Kanyanat Sudchoeichom 17-21, 21-17, 21-9. However, Sneha Rajwar lost 16-21, 13-21 to Japan’s Kaoru Sugiyama.