India is guaranteed a finalist at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2017 as Samiya Imad Farooqui and Aashi Rawat set up a semi-final clash in the women’s singles Under-15 category. The two Indians won their respective quarter-final matches in contrasting fashion on Friday to book their last-four spots.
Third seed Farooqui, 14, came back from a set down to beat unseeded Japanese Kaoru Sugiyama 14-21, 21-13, 21-13 in a quarter-final match that lasted 53 minutes. Rawat also beat a Japanese player, Sorano Yoshikawa, to secure her semi-final spot, but it was a more straightforward affair. The 14-year-old unseeded Indian won 21-15, 21-16 in just 28 minutes.
Farooqui and Rawat are the only Indian singles players remaining in the tournament. There were three Indians in the quarter-finals of the men’s singles U-15 category but all of them lost their matches on Friday.
Second seed Varun Kapur was beaten by seventh-seeded Indonesian Mawardi Putra Damas 16-21, 10-21 in just 25 minutes, while Ayush Raj Gupta lost to Muhammad Fazriq Mohamad Razif of Malaysia 12-21, 16-21 in 29 minutes.
Jayant Rana put up a fight against third seed Puritat Arree and even won the first game 21-15. However, the Thai player upped his game and took the second 21-17. The deciding game was a tense affair and went right down to the wire before Arree clinched it 25-23.