Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2022: Unnati Hooda cruises into quarter-finals
The Indian badminton player will face South Korea's Min Ji Kim in the final eight contest on Friday.
Indian badminton player Unnati Hooda stormed into the under-17 women's singles quarter-finals at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships 2022 with a comfortable victory in Nonthaburi, Thailand on Thursday.
The Odisha Open champion beat Thailand’s Nutchavee Sittiteeranan 21-11, 21-19 with ease in her Round of 16 match. Starting the match confidently, Unnati Hooda pocketed the first set easily but was pushed hard in the second. The Indian badminton player, however, kept her calm even when the game was poised at 18-18 and displayed immense maturity to wrap up the set as well as match comfortably.
Top-seed Unnati Hooda will now take on South Korea's Min Ji Kim in the quarter-finals on Friday.
In the other under-17 pre-quarterfinals, Dhruv Negi and Anmol Kharb suffered defeats. While the fifth-seeded Dhruv lost to Indonesia’s Ryan Widyanto 16-21, 13-21 in the men's section, Anmol put up a strong challenge against Malaysia’s Dania Sofea in the women's singles before going down fighting 17-21, 21-19, 13-21 in a close game.
Besides Unnati Hooda, India's two doubles pairs also emerged victorious to progress into the pre-quarterfinals in the under-17 section.
Men’s doubles pair of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat took just 20 minutes to outclass their Indonesian opponents, Daniswara Mahrizal and Andre Mukuan, by a 21-12, 21-10 scoreline. Whereas, the mixed doubles duo of Arul Ravi and Srinidhi Narayanan notched up an easy 21-14, 21-17 win over Thailand’s Rachprung Akat and Hathaithip Mijad.
Women’s doubles pairs of Navya Kanderi and Rakshitha Ramraj, and Vennala Kalagotla and Shriyanshi Valishetty suffered defeats in the Round of 32 along with men’s doubles pair of Divyam Arora and Mayank Arora.
Meanwhile, the pair of Tanvi Andluri and Durga Kandrapu entered the Round of 16 in the under-15 women's doubles category after beating Sunisa Lekjula and Pimchanok Sutthiviriyakul of Thailand 21-18, 22-20. Men’s doubles duo of Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas PV also registered their second win of the tournament as they got past the Thai pair of Thanik Foo and Woranan Saengvanich courtesy a 18-21, 21-10, 21-16 win in the under-15 Round of 32 match.
Mixed doubles pair of Ishaan Negi and Siddhi Rawat lost their Round of 32 match.