Yatsushiro (Japan), July 1 (IANS) Dhyan Santosh upset sixth seed Punnatat Prempunpong of Thailand while Dev Ruparelia and Tanvi Patri registered contrasting victories in the first round of the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Yatsushiro, Japan, on Wednesday.
Dhyan Santosh put up a clinical show to beat Prempunpong 21-17, 21-18 in boys’ singles first round on an otherwise mixed day for the Indian contingent.
Tanvi Patri breezed through her girls’ singles opening round, beating Indonesia’s Christabel Purwanto 21-18, 21-6, while fifth seed Ruparelia was pushed to a third game by Sri Lanka’s Pamudu Randiligama 21-13, 16-21, 21-7.
Among the other Indians in action, Adarshini Shri defeated Lee Kay Xin of Malaysia 21-12, 21-12, while Abhinav Garg went down 21-13, 24-22 against Lucas Lee of Malaysia.
Earlier, India’s campaign in the Mixed Team competition in the Badminton Asia Junior Championships came to an end at the quarterfinal stage as they went down to Hong Kong 2-1 on Monday.
India started strong in the opening set with Dev Ruparelia and Tanvi Patri giving the team a strong start as India led 22-12 after two matches. The doubles combinations then ensured that there were no hiccups as they clinched the set 55-44.
But the start of the second game turned things around for Hong Kong as Can Yee Hei beat Ruparelia 11-8 and IP Sum Yau extended their lead to 22-16. The doubles combinations could not cut down the deficit as the match went into a decider.
Ruparelia once again gave India a lead by beating Chan 11-9, but Ip managed to close the gap to 22-21.
The mixed doubles combination of Bjorn Jaison and Dianka Waldia kept India ahead with a 33-32 lead as the match against Cheung Sai Shing and Wing Chi Chu ended 11-11.
Tanvi Reddy Andluri and Baruni Parshwal went down to Chu and Yi Kiu Yu 5-11, and India could not recover from that and lost the set 55-43.
–IANS
bsk/
