BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2022 badminton: India beat Germany, to play Hong Kong for 13th place

The Indian team beat Germany 4-1 in its 13-16th place playoff match at the World Junior Mixed Team Badminton Championships 2022 in Santander, Spain on Friday.

India will play Hong Kong, who beat the Czech Republic 3-1 in the other bracket, in a bid to finish in the 13th position at the World Junior Mixed Team Badminton Championships 2022.

In the tie against Malaysia, India began with a loss as Ayush Shetty went down 21-6, 12-21, 19-21 to Justin Hoh in the men’s singles.

Having lost 3-1 to Malaysia in the 9-16th playoff match on Thursday, India started the tie with a win as the mixed doubles pair of Samarveer and Radhika Sharma beat Jarne Schlevoigt and Julia Meyer 21-18, 21-16 in the opener.

Bharat Raghav then doubled India’s lead with a come-from-behind 14-21, 21-17, 21-8 win over Sanjeevi Padmanabhan Vasudevan in men’s singles.

The men’s doubles pair of Jonathan Dresp and Simon Krax, however, pulled a match back for Germany as they got the better of Arsh Mohammad and Abhinav Thakur 21-14, 24-22.

In the crucial fourth match, Unnati Hooda, who sat out Thursday’s tie against Malaysia, returned with a clutch 21-8, 21-6 win over the German women’s singles representative Selin Hubsch.

With India 3-1 up, the women’s doubles pair of Shreya Balaji and Srinidhi Narayanan wrapped up the affair, beating Julia Meyer and Cara Siebrecht by a 21-13, 21-13 margin.

Even if the Indian badminton team wins Saturday’s match against Hong Kong, it cannot better its finishing position, 12th, from the last edition in 2019. 

India’s best showing at the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships was a fourth-place finish in the 2008 edition.