BWF World Junior Team Champonships | Indian shuttlers start campaign with win over USA

Meiraba Luwang and Tanisha Crasto sailed India towards a commanding 4-1 win over USA in their Group E clash as the Indian contingent started their campaign at the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2019 in Kazan, Russia on Monday. Goa’s Tanisha Crasto was the star of the show for India having fetched wins in girls’ doubles as well as mixed doubles. 

Crasto, alongside Chattisgarh’s Ishaan Bhatnagar, delivered the first point to India with their 22-20, 21-9 victory over Jacob Zhang and Jessica Wang in the mixed doubles.

India’s star junior boys’ singles shuttler, junior World no. 10 Maisnam Meiraba Luwang of Manipur was the next to take the court. He stamped his authority over the 520th ranked Alexander Zheng with a score of 21-9, 21-11 win in 26 minutes indicating the huge gap between their rankings. Luwang has been in scintillating form this year, having triumphed at the Russian Junior White Nights 2019 and finished as the runner-up at the India Junior International earlier in the year.

Gujarat’s Tasnim Mir, who won the Dubai Junior International Series earlier this month, ground out a gritty 21-19, 25-23 win over Junior world No 75 Natalie Chi to secure the 3-0 tie win for India.

India, however, lost the fourth rubber when the boys’ doubles combination of Manjit Singh Khwairakpam and Iman Sonowal went down 23-25, 19-21 to William Yu and Joshua Yuan.

The in-form pair of Aditi Bhatt and Crasto then played the final match of the tie against Katelin Ngo and Esther Shi. The Indians, who secured back-to-back wins in the two selection tournaments, were made to work hard for their win by the American pair before they pulled off a three-game win 21-16, 15-21, 21-7 in 46 minutes.

Action in the group stages will continue till October 2 following which the knockout rounds will begin. Besides India and USA, the other teams in Group E are Australia, Armenia, and Japan.