BWF Worlds: Saina Nehwal wins, gets a bye in second round, advances to PQFs
Former world No.1 Saina Nehwal made it to the pre-quarterfinals of the BWF World Championships in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Saina, who won a silver and bronze at the Worlds, is just two more victories away from winning her third medal at the Worlds.
Saina downed Cheung Ngan Yi of Hong Kong 21-19, 21-9 in women's singles first round. Saina got a bye in the second round as her opponent Nozomi Okuhara pulled out in the last minute. The Japanese former world champion got a bye in the first round and by virtue of that Saina got a direct entry into the third round.
Saina will play the winner of the second round match between Busanan Ongbamrungphan of Thailand and Yvonne Li of Germany on Thursday.
Teen shuttlers Gayatri Gopichand and Treesa Jolly made short work of Low Yeen Yuan and Valeree Siow of Malaysia 21-11, 21-13 in the women's singles first round. The Indian girls have a tough second round against 10th seeded Malaysians Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan. The girls lost thrice this year against the Malaysians and two times at the recently concluded Commonwealth Games.
Another Indian pair of Ashwini Bhat and Shikha Gautam eased past Martina Corsini and Judith Mair of Italy 21-8, 21-14. They are also drawn up against the formidable Korean pair of Kim So Yeong and Kong Hee Yong.
Seasoned campaigners Ashwini Ponnappa and Sikki Reddy play top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China on Wednesday.
India suffered two losses in mixed doubles. Ishaan Bhatnagar and Tanisha Crasto lost their second round match to 14th seeds Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand 14-21, 17-21 while Gregory Mairs and Jenny Moore of England knocked out Venkat Gaurav Prasad and Juhi Dewangan 21-10, 23-21 in the first round.
Results:
Women's singles: Saina Nehwal bt Cheung Ngan Yi (Hkg) 21-19, 21-9
Women's doubles (Rd I): Gayatri Gopichand Pullela/Treesa Jolly bt Low Yeen Yuan/Valeree Siow (Mas) 21-11, 21-13; Ashwini Bhat/Shikha Gautam bt Martina Corsini/Judith Mair (Ita) 21-8, 21-14.
Men's doubles (Rd I): Fabien Delrue/William Villeger (Fra) bt Krishna Prasad Garaga/Vishnuvardhan Goud Panjala 21-14, 21-18.
Mixed doubles (Rd I): Gregory Mairs/Jenny Moore (Eng) bt Venkat Gaurav Prasad/Juhi Dewangan 21-10, 23-21.
(Rd-II): 14-Supak Jomkoh/Supissara Paewsampran (Tha) bt Ishaan Bhatnagar/Tanisha Crasto 21-14, 21-17
'Weak-spirited' Kento Momota limps out at badminton worlds
TOKYO: Japanese badminton star Kento Momota blamed his fear of failure for a "weak-spirited" second-round exit from the world championships on Wednesday after losing 21-17, 21-16 to India's HS Prannoy.
Number two seed Momota, whose career has been in free fall since a car crash more than two years ago left him badly hurt, limped out after another meek performance in front of a stunned crowd in Tokyo.
Momota, once badminton's undisputed king, looked a shadow of the player that won a record 11 titles in 2019, and he pulled no punches when analysing his own performance after the match.
"I was so scared of making mistakes that I shrunk within myself a little and I think that was why I lost," the crestfallen 27-year-old told reporters.
"I realised that midway through the match, but I couldn't do anything to fix it. I was weak-spirited and that's so frustrating."
Momota dumped shot after shot into the net and was powerless to stop world number 18 Prannoy from taking control early in the match.
Momota vowed to try to get back to his former position at badminton's summit but he said he would need some time to get over this latest disappointment.
"I think I used to win titles too easily," he said.
"It became a matter of course that I would win them, but it's difficult and some players never win even one."
"I don't think at all that I'm not capable of winning titles," he added.
Prannoy will play in the next round against his Indian compatriot Lakshya Sen, who advanced with a 21-17, 21-10 win over Spain's Luis Enrique Penalver.
"I can't really be happy about what I've done because you don't have time for that," Prannoy said.
"You have to get ready for what's to come next tomorrow and hopefully keep getting better."
Malaysian number five seed Lee Zii Jia also booked his place in the next round with a comfortable 21-9, 21-12 win over Portugal's Bernardo Atilano.
Lee is aiming to become the first Malaysian ever to win a world badminton title and he said he was "feeling good" after making short work of Atilano.
"I think the real challenge will be tomorrow, and my opponent will be tougher than today," said the 24-year-old.
"It's a big challenge for me -- I want to be the first to win the world championships from Malaysia. I think everyone has a big chance to win so we will see."
Defending champion Loh Kean Yew of Singapore had to fend off a furious second-game fightback from Guatemala's Kevin Cordon before closing out their contest 21-12, 11-21, 21-12.
Number eight seed Loh played down the pressure of arriving in Tokyo as the reigning champion and said he intended to "treat it like any other tournament".
"I'm definitely happy on the winning side, always," he said.
India's Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Kidambi Srikanth was stunned 21-9, 21-17 by China's unseeded Zhao Junpeng.
Number 12 seed Srikanth, the silver medallist at last year's world championships and part of India's Thomas Cup-winning team in May, said he "could have maybe played better".
"He just played well when it really mattered," said the former world number one.
BWF World Championships: Prannoy stuns Momota, Lakshya sails into pre-quarters
TOKYO: HS Prannoy stunned second seed Kento Momota in straight games to record a sensational win while reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen also sailed into the men's singles pre-quarterfinals of the World Championships here on Wednesday.
Unseeded Prannoy rose above expectations to shut the door on crowd favourite and two-time former world champion Momota 21-17, 21-16 in a second round tie.
Incidentally, it was Prannoy's first win over Momota in eight matches. In their previous clashes, the Indian won only one game against his higher-rated Japanese rival.
Earlier in the day, reigning Commonwealth Games champion Lakshya Sen sailed into the pre-quarterfinals with a straight game win over Spain's Luis Penalver.
The young Indian badminton ace Sen won his second round contest 21-17, 21-10, taking 72 minutes to complete the formality.
Prannoy and Sen will face each other in an all-Indian last 16 clash on Thursday.
However, last edition's runner-up Kidambi Srikanth crashed out after a straight game defeat to world number 32 Zhao Jun Peng.
Srikanth went down against his Chinese counterpart 18-21, 17-21 in a match lasting only 34 minutes.
The 29-year-old was out of sorts in the opening game as it took only 12 minutes for Zhao to take a 1-0 lead in the match.
The Indian, already on the back foot, tried to up the ante in the second game and led 16-14 but too many unforced errors helped Zhao secure the victory.
Sen won his second round contest 21-17 21-10. After trailing 3-4, the ninth seeded Sen grabbed a six-point lead to be 13-7. The Indian continued to stay ahead before comfortably wrapping up the first game.
Sen, a world championship bronze medallist, then maintained his stranglehold over the Spanish shuttler and won the second game by a bigger margin.
In the second game, the first six points were shared between the two players, but the 21-year-old Indian pulled ahead riding on his superior play.
Enjoying a massive nine-point lead at one stage of the second game, it was only a matter of time before Sen completed the job.
Earlier, the Indian men's doubles pair of MR Arjun and Dhruv Kapila moved to the pre-quarterfinals but Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy made a second round exit from the prestigious tournament.
The unseeded Arjun and Kapila upset eighth seeds and last edition's bronze medallists Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-17, 21-16 in their second round match.
They will face Hee Yong Kai Terry and Loh Kean Hean of Singapore next.
Ponnappa and Sikki, on the other hand, were handed a 15-21, 10-21 loss by top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in 42 minutes.
The other women's doubles pairing of Pooja Dandu and Sanjana Santosh's also crashed out of the tournament, going down to third seeds Lee So Hee and Shin Seung Chan of Korea 15-21, 7-21.
The eighth seeded men's doubles pair of Chirag Shetty and Satwiksairaj Rankireddy thrashed Guatemala's Solis Jonathan and Anibal Marroquin 21-8, 21-10 to storm into Round of 16, where the duo will be up against Denmark's Jeppe Bay and Lasse Molhede.
BWF World Championships: Kapila-Arjun cruise into quarterfinals
TOKYO: The Indian men's doubles pair of Dhruv Kapila and MR Arjun moved to the quarterfinals with a come-from-behind victory over Terry Hee and Loh Kean Hean at the World Championships here on Thursday.
The unseeded Indian duo had to toil hard for 58 minutes to win its round of 16 clash against the Singaporeans 18-21 21-15 21-16.
Arjun and Kapila will cross swords with the third seed Indonesian pair of Mohammad Ahsan and Hendra Setiawan in the last eight stage.
The two have enjoyed a good run in the tournament. They had upstaged eighth seeds and last edition's bronze medallists Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark 21-17 21-16 in their second round match.
Later in the day, Saina Nehwal and the men's doubles duo of Satwiksairaj Rankeyreddy and Chirag Shetty will play in their pre-quarterfinals, while Lakshya Sen and HS Prannoy will face each other in an all-Indian last 16 clash.
Bhagat-Kadam win men's doubles gold, 3 women para shuttlers also emerge champions in Thailand
NEW DELHI: Indian para shuttlers Pramod Bhagat and Sukant Kadam claimed the gold after beating Indonesia's Dwiyoko Dwiyoko and Fredy Setiawan in the men's doubles final of the Thailand Para Badminton International tournament in Pattaya on Saturday.
The Indian duo defeated the Indonesian pair 21-18, 21-13 in the summit clash of SL3-SL4 category.In the men's singles, Bhagat and Kadam had to settle for a silver medal each after losing their respective finals.
While Pramod went down fighting to England's Daniel Bethell 13-21, 19-21, Kadam lost 2-21, 17-21 to France's Lucas Mazur.
"I am happy with my performance throughout the tournament. I wish to congratulate Bethell on the win and now I will head back to the training ground and train harder for the World Championship in Tokyo," Bhagat said in a release.
In other results, Ruthick Ragupathi and Manasi Joshi finished second best in mixed doubles SL3-SU5 class, losing 21-17, 15-21, 7-21 to France's Lucas Mazur and Faustine Noel in the final.
In women's singles, Mandeep Kaur got the better off compatriot Manasi 20-22, 21-19, 21-14 in SL3 finals to claim the gold medal, while Manisha Ramadass also bagged the yellow metal after beating Japan's Kaede Kameyama 20-22, 21-12, 21-19 in SU5 final.
Nithya Sre Sumathy Sivan also won the gold with a 21-9, 24-22 win over England's Rachel Choong 21-9, 24-22 in SH6 final.
Manasi and Shanthiya Viswanathan also combined to sign off with a silver in the women's doubles SL3-SU5 after going down 20-22, 19-21 to Thailand's Nipada Saensupa and Chanida Srinavakul.
BWF World Championships: Praneeth losses, Ashwini-Sikki, Tanisha-Ishaan win on day 1
TOKYO: B Sai Praneeth failed to cross the opening hurdle after losing in three games but India registered twin wins in women's and mixed doubles competition on the opening day of the BWF World Championships here on Monday.
Praneeth, a 2019 bronze medallist, put up a brave effort before going down 15-21 21-15 15-21 to world number 4 Chou Tien Chen of Chinese Taipei in little over an hour. It was yet another forgettable outing in Tokyo for Praneeth, following his struggles at last year's Olympic Games where he participated without a proper coach or physio to eventually bow out early.
However, former Commonwealth Games bronze medallists Ashwini Ponnappa and N Sikki Reddy progressed to the women's doubles second round with a 21-7 21-9 win over Maldives' Aminath Nabeeha Abdul Razzaq and Fathimath Nabaaha Abdul Razzaq.
Ashwini and Sikki will face the uphill task of taming top seeds Chen Qing Chen and Jia Yi Fan of China in the second round.
In mixed doubles, Tanisha Crasto and Ishaan Bhatnagar defeated German duo of Patrick Scheiel and Franziska Volkmann 21-13 21-13 in 29 minutes to also make a positive start to their campaign.
The Indian pair will meet 14th seeds Supak Jomkoh and Supissara Paewsampran of Thailand next.
Last edition's silver and bronze medallists Kidambi Srikanth and Lakshya Sen, and former World No. 8 HS Prannoy will be among the Indian shuttlers competing later in the day.
Unnati Hooda shines in national junior badminton selection trials
RAIPUR: Unnati Hooda, the youngest shuttler to win a BWF Super 100 event at Odisha Open this year, topped the National junior selection trials which concluded on Monday.
The Haryana-born shuttler defeated Rakshitha Sree and Anupama Upadhyaya in the play-offs to decide the top three positions.
Hooda, 14, registered a 10-21, 21-17, 21-14 win over Anupama and beat Sree 18-21, 21-18, 23-21 in another match.
New junior World No.1 Sankar wants to make it big at senior level
HYDERABAD: A week after Indian shuttlers dominated the Commonwealth Games, there is a new junior world No.1 from another part of India in Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian. The Chennai lad became the new World No.1 in the boys singles category according to the latest rankings released by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) on Tuesday.
Sankar is the first shuttler from Tamil Nadu to achieve this feat and fourth Indian boy after Aditya Joshi (Madhya Pradesh) in 2014, Siril Verma of Telangana in 2016 and Lakshya Sen from Uttarakhand in 2017. Among them only Lakshya Sen went on to make it big in the senior circuit..
Sankar benefited from BWF’s decision to defreeze the ranking points this August. Ranking points were frozen after the All England Championships in March 2020 due to the pandemic situation.
World No. 1 Pramod Bhagat and World No. 4 Sukant Kadam have reached the semifinals of the men's doubles SL 3 - SL 4 event and have also reached the quarterfinals in singles.
According to information received here, in singles, Pramod Bhagat secured his quarterfinals birth with an easy win over Ukraine's Oleksandr Chyrkov with a straight set win. He will be facing France's Mathieu Thomas in the quarter finals. The score line read 24-22 and 21-15 and the match lasted for 37 minutes.
In the men's doubles, Pramod and Sukant defeated Thailand's Mongkhon Bunsun and Siripong Teamarrom in straight sets with the score line of 21-17 and 22-20, the also defeated France's Faustine Noel and Lucas Mazur in straight sets to secure their semifinals spot.
The match ended in 24 minutes with the score line of 21-7 and 21 -15. Pramod Bhagat and Manisha Ramadass also won his mixed doubles match against Korea's Shin Kyung Hwan and Joo Dongjae in straight sets with the score line of 21-16 and 21- 19.
Sukant defeated his German counterpart Tim Haller in straight sets to fix his place in the quarterfinals. He won the game in straight sets with the score line of 21-13 and 21-12. Sukant will be facing France's Guillaume Gailly in the quarterfinals.
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