BWF World Junior Championship 2022 | Sankar Muthusamy advances to the quarter-finals, Unnati Hooda ousted
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At World Junior Badminton Championships 2022, Unnati Hooda lost the women's singles match, while S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian reached the men's singles quarterfinals. In her round of 16 match, Hooda fell to Hina Akechi of Japan 17-21, 21-12, 18-21, while Muthusamy beat Nachakorn 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 conclusion, Akechi found a second gear to win the first game.
After winning the women's singles championship 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 final at first, but soon lost it and crashed out.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, the highest-ranked male singles player from India and current world No. 4, defeated Nachakorn Pusri of Thailand late in the day to maintain India's chances of winning a medal. In the semifinal round, the fourth-seeded Indian will take on Hu Zhe An of China, who defeated Wang Zi Jun of his own nation 21-16, 21-19.
S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian is the only Indian who is still competing after Thursday's results. Saina Nehwal, a former world number one, is the only Indian to have won the junior world championship title to date. Rising talent Lakshya Sen, who won bronze in 2018, was India's last medalist in the competition.
Due to COVID-19, the BWF World Junior Championships were postponed in 2020 and 2021. On October 30, the junior championships come to an end.
