All six Indian singles shuttlers who contested the third round of the BWF World Junior Championships emerged victorious on Tuesday. The only defeats for India on the day came in the doubles, where as many as four pairs were ousted.
Junior world No 2 Lakshya Sen, Aakarshi Kashyap, Gayatri Gopichand, Ashmita Chaliha, Rahul Bharadwaj and Kartikey Gulshan Kumar all booked their spots in the fourth round.
Sen came through 21-15, 21-19 against Indonesia’s Sen Gatjra Piliang Fiqihila Cupu, while women’s singles eight seed Kashyap dispatched Czech Republic’s Lucie Krpatova 21-13 21-4. Men’s singles 13th seed Kumar beat Sri Lanka’s Ranthushka Sasindu 21-10 21-17, while Bharadwaj defeated Russia’s Nikita Lemeshko 21-12, 21-9.
Gopichand and Chaliha were both stretched to three games by their opponents. Gopichand came back from a game down to beat Brazil’s Jacqueline Lima 15-21, 21-18, 21-11 in 40 minutes, before Chaliha battled it out against France’s Margot Lambert 21-13, 19-21, 21-13.
India’s mixed-doubles pair of Srikrishna Sai Kumar Podile and Rutaparna Panda got a walkover in the first round, before they beat Hungary’s Gergo Pytel and Reka Madarasz 21-16, 21-14 to enter the third round. Arintap Das Gupta and Srishti Jupudi also reached the third round after winning their opening two matches in straight games.
In women’s doubles, Malvika Bansod and Deeksha Choudhary were the only Indian pair to reach the third round after Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker, and Mithula UK and Panda were beaten in the second round.
In men’s doubles too, only one Indian pair reached the third round – third seeds Dhruv Kapila and Krishna Prasad Garaga. The pairs of Sanjai Srivatsa Dhanraj and Siddharth Elango, and Manjit Singh Khwairakpam and Dingku Singh Konthoujam were both knocked out in the second round.
