Maisnam Meiraba Luwang continued his fine form to enter the third round of the Yonex German Junior 2019 at Berlin on Friday. The Manipur boy needed 31 minutes to win an all-Indian clash with Ishaan Bhatnagar 21-6, 21-19 to set up a meeting with the sixth seeded Yonathan Ramlie.
This is the second consecutive straight-game win for Luwang at this tournament after beating U Min Jeong of Korea 21-11, 21-10 in 29 minutes in the first round.
Earlier on Thursday, 2017 Asian Junior Championships U-15 gold medallist Samiya Imad Farooqui and Gayatri Gopichand made a winning start to their campaign. Farooqui needed just 27 minutes to dismiss Denmark’s Clara Lober 21-10, 21-17. Gopichand was equally impressive in her 21-14, 21-15 first round demolition of England’s Alexandra Oprisan.
Kerala girl Treesa Jolly set up a second round meeting with Gopichand after her 21-17, 21-11 win over Germany’s Friederike Rudert. Amolika Singh Sisodiya, hailing from UP, was the fourth girl to progress into the second round following her 21-13, 21-8 victory over Caroline Racloz of Switzerland. Aashi Rawat, however, departed with an 18-21, 12-21 loss to Korea’s Da Jeong Chung.
Nashik girl Smit Toshniwal, the only Indian girl to be seeded at the German Junior, will begin her challenge on Friday after receiving a first round bye.
Andhra Pradesh boy Sai Charan Koya prevailed over Poland’s Patryck Kordek 21-16, 21-16 for a showdown with Finn Achthoven. 16th seeded Priyanshu Rajawat will open his campaign on Friday a week after becoming the only Indian to reach the quarter-finals of the Dutch Junior International.
India had a solitary win in doubles on Day 1 of this Junior International Grand Prix event with the girls’ doubles pair of Kavya Gupta and Khushi Gupta notching up a hard-fought 21-12, 21-23, 21-13 win over the German-French combine of Sarah Bergedick and Romane Cloteaux-Foucault. While the Indian challenge got over in mixed doubles, Navaneeth Bokka and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala will hope to continue their good run in boys’ doubles after making it to the pre-quarters at Haarlem last week.