Unnati Hooda, Dhruv and Ishita Negi standout as Indian shuttlers march in the pre-quarterfinals of the Asian Junior Championship

Young Indian shuttlers Dhruv Negi, Unnati Hooda and Anmol Kharb registered brilliant wins as they progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the U-17 singles tournament in the U-17 and U-15 Junior Asian Championship. The event is taking place in Nonthaburi, Thailand and Indian stalwarts have done reasonably well till now.

Dhruv Negi who is one of the headliners from India fought valiantly against Panya Phutthiphraisakul from Thailand during his 21-14, 17-21, 21-15 win in the Men’s singles category.The boy from Uttarakhand was made to toil hard for this victory and will hopefully have learnt a lesson or two for the coming matches.

Known faces Unnati Hooda and Anmol Kharb both registered wins in the women’s category. Hooda was very smooth in dispatching her Indonesian opponent Dea Nur Fadilla by a scorelien of 21-7, 21-11 as she completely dominated the proceedings. Similarly Anmol also showed her class as the Haryana based girl defeated Thailand’s Ratnacha Sompoch 21-12, 21-19, hence winning pretty quickly.

While it was mostly a happy day at the event for the Indian contingent Meer Nehwal lost his match despite his best efforts. He was the only shuttler to lose his match in the U-17 category. He lost to Japan’s Kazuma Kawano by a 21-11, 9-21, 19-21 scoreline.

Coming to the U-15 categories, Ishita negi, Mohammed Ali Mir and three other shuttlers have progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the event. Mohammad Ali and Gnana Dattu secured easy straight sets victories against Thailand’s Paramat Pumleng and Hong Kong’s Cheung Sai Shing. Both the Indian youngsters won in straight games and were very close to flawless with their play. While Anish Thoppani had to toil hard after dropping the second game. He recovered well as he won 21-14, 18-21, 23-21 against ninth-seed Maharishiel Gain of Indonesia.

Among the female shuttlers Ishita Negi who is one of the headliners in her category completely dispatched her opponent Lada Na Nakorn of Thailand by 21-9, 21-12. Sampriti Pal also outclassed her Japanese counterpart 21-16, 21-16 to progress to the next round.

Abhinav Garg, Suhasi Verma and Tanvi Sharma were the ones that fell short of the pre-quarterfinals in the U-15 category.

India have started well in Doubles aswell as Men’s Doubles pairing of Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas PV got the better of Sri Lanka’s Mihila Jayaweera and Janeesha Sethuhewa by 21-18, 21-17.

Overall plenty of shuttlers in the race for India and they will have tougher challenges in the coming days so it will be interesting to see how they react to those challenges.