Ayush from odisha bests statemstrs on way to QFs; Tara enters semifinals; Radhika suffers upset

Bhubaneswar: Asia Junior U-15 girls’ runner-up Tara Shah became the first player to reach semifinals of the ongoing Yonex-Sunrise 33rd National Sub-Junior Badminton Championships 2019 at East Coast Railway Indoor Stadium here today.

Top seeded Tara from Pune, however, faced stiff fight before getting the better of Unnati Hooda (Haryana) 21-16, 21-18 in the first U-15 girls’ singles quarterfinal of the day. In another last-eight match, eight seed Devika Sihag (Haryana) knocked out fourth seed Radhika Sharma in straight games to join Tara in the last-four stage.

Meanwhile, U-17 boys’ singles top seed Pranav Rao Gandham (Telangana), long with third seed Jayan Rana (Haryana) and fourth seed Ayush Raj Gupta (UP) won respective matches to advance to the quarterfinals.

The first session of the day was mostly confined to doubles and mixed doubles matches, most of which were hard-fought affairs. There were two upsets in U-17 mixed doubles event with second and fourth seeded pairs crashing out from pre-quarterfinal stage.

RESULTS:

U-15 Girls’ Singles: QFs: Tara Shah-1* (MAH) bt Unnati Hooda-15* (HAR) 21-16, 21-18. Devika Sihag-8* (HAR) bt Radhika Sharma-4* (PNB) 21-13, 21-11.

U-15 Boys’ Doubles: Round-16: Gagan-Mayank Rana-1* (HAR) bt Guna Venkata Sai Reddy Basireddy-Rahul Azaad Talluri (TS) 21-10, 21-18.

U-17 Boys’ Singles: Round 16: Pranav Rao Gandham-1* (TS) bt Ayan Paul (WB) 21-13, 21-15. Ayush Raj Gupta-4* (UP) bt Daivik Chauhan (GUJ) 21-17, 21-12. Jayant Rana-3* (HAR) bt Sanjeeva Rao Relly-10* (AP) 21-14, 21-19.

U17 Mixed Doubles: Round 16: Ayan Rashid-Tasnim Mir (ASM-GUJ) (1) bt Hariharan Amsakarunan-Praveena S (TN) 21-11, 21-23, 21-18. Prajjwal Malakar-Divya BR-3* (MP-KER) bt Chirag Sharma-Savreet Kaur 13-21, 21-15, 21-17. Shubham Patel-Sakshi Phogat (RAJ) bt Bhargav Rami Reddy Kakumanu-Vaishnavi Khadkekar-4* (TS) 21-7, 21-18. Gireesh Nayudu B-Mehreen Riza (AI-KER) bt Arjun Fallary-Lydia Barretto-2* (GOA) 21-19, 21-12. Tonmoy Boruah-Lakshay Sharma-3* (ASM-PNB) bt Adhav
R-Nathan Shieh (TN) 21-16, 18-21, 21-18. Shaurya Pant-Rushendra Thirupathi-4* (UTR-TS) bt Sri Mohit Veera Venkata SK-Numair Shaik (AP) 21-18, 14-21, 21-18. Lokesh Reddy K-Ankit Mondal-2* (TS-WB) bt Uday Mukati-Kabir Varma (MP) 21-12, 21-10.