World Junior Badminton C'ships: Sankar assures medal after QF win

SANTANDER: Sankar Subramanian entered the semi-finals of the BWF World Junior Badminton Championships 2022 on Friday and assured a medal at the competition to become only the ninth Indian to win a medal at the event. India's highest-ranked male shuttler in the tournament defeated China's Hu Zhe An in a three-set encounter, 21-18, 8-21, 21-16 in the quarterfinals. Sankar is now assured of a bronze medal.

The last Indian to win a medal at the coveted event was Lakshya Sen, who won a bronze at the 2018 World Junior Badminton Championships. The highest-ranked Indian male in the singles category, S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, had earlier defeated Nachakorn Pusri of Thailand on Thursday to keep India's chances of winning a medal in the event.

Unnati Hooda, a strong medal contender for the Indian side, was knocked out on Thursday. In her round of 16 match, Unnati Hooda, 14, fell to Hina Akechi of Japan 17-21, 21-12, 18-21, while S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian defeated Nachakorn Pusri of Thailand 21-15, 21-13.

The fifth seed in the competition and world No. 5 junior badminton player Unnati Hooda had trouble reading Hina Akechi's deft drop shots early in the first game, falling down 11-7. But the 14-year-old bounced back and quickly pulled even. Even though the game was close to the end, Akechi found a second gear to win the first game.

After winning the women's singles title at the Odisha Open in January, Unnati Hooda, the youngest Indian to win a BWF Super 100 title, stormed back and destroyed her Japanese opponent to tie the match. The Indian kid played well in the decider at first, but soon lost it and crashed out.