India’s campaign at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships’ team event got off to a winning start with a facile victory over Kazakhstan in their first tie of Group C.
India won all five matches of the best-of-five tie, with junior national champion Aakarshi Kashyap, former junior world No 1 Lakshya Sen, and India’s top-ranked junior doubles pair of Simran Singhi and Ritika Thaker recording straightforward wins to seal the tie.
Kashyap, 16, was the first Indian to take to the court and she needed only 13 minutes to get past Iya Gordeyeva 21-5, 21-4. Sen then dispatched Dmitriy Panarin 21-15, 21-12 to give India a 2-0 lead, before Singhi and Thaker sealed the tie with a 21-7, 21-8 win over Iya Gordeyeva and Aisha Zhumabek.
Boys’ doubles pair of Manjit Singh and Dingku Singh then made it 4-0 to India with a 21-5, 21-6 win over Damir Abdullayev and Kemran Tajibullayev, before mixed doubles pair Srishti Jupudi and Srikrishna Sai Kumar Podile completed the whitewash with a 21-7, 21-9 win over Dmitriy Panarin and Aisha Zhumabek.
India’s first real test will come on Sunday when they take on Korea in their final group tie. Korea also beat Sri Lanka 3-0 in their first group tie on Saturday. Before facing Korea, India will first take on Sri Lanka on Sunday.
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this report stated that India had won the tie 3-0.