Nonthaburi (Thailand):Unnati Hooda along with Gnana Dattu, Anish Thoppani and two doubles pairs marched into the semifinals to assure country of five medals at the Badminton Asia U-17 & U-15 Junior Championships on Friday.
The junior World No. 4 Unnati continued her sensational run as she outclassed South Korea’s Min Ji Kim in the U-17 women’s singles quarter-finals in straight sets 21-15, 21-18.
The top-seed Indian will face Japan’s Milon Yokouchi in the semifinals.
Dattu and Anish, on the other hand, had to work hard in the U-15 men’s singles Last-8 contests against their Indonesian opponents before they wrapped up the matches in three sets.
The seventh seeded Dattu got the better of fourth-seed Radithya Wardhana 21-11, 13-21, 21-11, Anish claimed a 22-20, 19-21, 21-12 win over fifth seeded Glend Rumondor to confirm the Last-4 berth.
The pairs of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat, and Bjorn Jaison and Aathish Sreenivas PV confirmed medals for the country in the doubles category.
The in-form U-17 men’s doubles pair of Arsh and Sanskar earned a hard-fought victory against Indonesia’s Nawaf Khoiriyansyah and Adriel Leonardo by 24-22, 20-22, 21-15.
Then, the duo of Bjorn and Aathish added a second doubles medal to India’s tally when the duo clinched a come-from-behind 16-21, 21-12, 21-17 victory against Chinese Taipei’s Sheng-Ming Lin and Chla-Yu Tsai in the U-15 men’s doubles category.
Meanwhile, U-17 mixed doubles pair of Mayank Rana and Jiya Rawat and U-15 women’s doubles pair of Tanvi Andluri and Durga Kandrapu ended their campaigns with quarterfinals defeats.
Semi-finals will take place tomorrow while finals will be played on Sunday.
India had bagged five medals in 2018 while winning two in the 2019 edition. The prestigious continental event is being conducted after two years following the pandemic.
