India finishes at 7th spot in team event at Badminton World Junior Championships

Spokane [USA], September 30 (ANI): Team India beat Thailand 3-1 to finish in the seventh spot at the mixed team events of the Badminton World Junior Championships on Saturday in Spokane, USA.

As per a note from Badminton Association of India (BAI) Media, the team of Samarveer and Radhika Sharma, Tara Shah and a team of Divyam Arora and Mayank Rana emerged victorious in their respective matches while Tushar Suveer lost his match. 

Mixed doubles: Samarveer and Radhika Sharma defeated Tanakorn Meechai and Fungfa Korpthammakit 11-21, 21-19, 21-18.

Boys’ singles: Tushar Suveer lost to Nachakorn Pusri 19-21, 11-21.

Girls’ singles: Tara Shah defeated Tonrug Saeheng 21-15, 24-26, 21-12.

Boys’ doubles: Divyam Arora and Mayank Rana defeated Songpon Sae-ma and Phurinath Saikamma 21-18, 21-19.

Individual events will commence from October 2, 2023.

Team India suffered a 0-3 defeat against a formidable Malaysian team in the quarter-finals early on Friday.

In the mixed doubles category, Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Vaishnavi Khadkekar fought valiantly but lost the first match of the tie 12-21, 16-21 against Bryan Jeremy Goonting and Chan Wen Tse.

Ayush Shetty kept the team’s hopes alive with a spectacular comeback in the boys’ singles match. After losing the first game 18-21, he triumphed in the second game 21-16, but ultimately lost the decider 16-21 against Eogene Ewe.

In the girls’ singles match, Devika Sihag showcased her skills by starting off strong with a 21-18 win in the first game. However, she couldn’t maintain the momentum and went down 16-21, 14-21 in the next two games against Ong Xin Yee of Malaysia.

In the next match, Team India faced Japan for a place between 5th and 6th in the tournament.

Samarveer and Radhika Sharma gave their best effort in the mixed doubles match but fell short, losing 15-21, 18-21 against Daigo Tanioaka and Maya Taguchi of Japan.

Lokesh Reddy Kalagotla faced a closely contested battle, eventually losing 14-21, 20-22 against Yuna Nakagawa of Japan.

Unnati Hooda displayed resilience but narrowly missed out on victory, losing 21-15, 19-21, 19-21 against Japan’s Mihane Endo.

Following this match, they were scheduled to play Thailand.