New Delhi: While her colleagues faltered on their way to the business end of the BWF World Junior Championships, the women’s singles top seed Tanvi Sharma ensured that there will be at least one Indian at the podium ceremony in Guwahati on Sunday as she rallied to win her quarter-final and assured herself of a medal on Friday.
The 16-year-old, who had clinched a bronze at the Asian Junior Championships in July, came from behind to defeat Japan’s Saki Matsumoto 13-15, 15-9, 15-10 in 47 minutes at the National Centre of Excellence.
The player from Hoshiarpur, Punjab, kept her nerves under pressure and found winners with her crosscourt slices to beat Matsumoto in what was the first match between the two shuttlers.
Tanvi Sharma became the first Indian female player to be assured of a BWF World Junior Championships medal in 17 years when she fought back from a game down to beat and reach the girls singles semifinals at the National Centre of Excellence here on Friday.
This is India’s first individual medal at the event since 2023 when Ayush Shetty clinched the men’s singles bronze at Spokane. However, Tanvi is only the third female to medal at the prestigious event after Aparna Popat (silver in 1996) and Saina Nehwal (silver in 2006 and gold in 2008).
The other medals have all come in men’s singles category with Siril Verma (2015) and Sankar Muthusamy (2022) claiming silver while RMV Gurusaidutt (2008), HS Prannoy (2010), B Sai Praneeth (2010), Sameer Verma (2011), Lakshya Sen (2018) and Shetty (2023) winning bronze. India have never won a doubles medal at the World Junior Championships.
Tanvi began aggressively and looked like she was in control as she opened up a 10-6 lead in the first game. But a flurry of errors allowed Matsumoto to stage a comeback as she won seven straight points to take the lead. The Indian managed to stem the rot but could not avoid losing the game.
The US Open finalist was much more comfortable with her shot selection in the second game and raced through to a 15-9 win. However, errors once again pegged her back at the start of the third game and it was clear that the top seed was under pressure as the players changed ends with the Indian trailing 5-8.
Those nerves definitely settled as she clinched four straight points to take the lead at 9-8 and then used her flat tosses and cross smashes to outplay her opponent.
“It is difficult to play against Matsumoto as she slows down the game. So, I knew that I had to be aggressive. I am happy that I am assured of a medal,” said Tanvi, who will now face China’s Liu Si Ya, who had won silver at the Asian Junior Championships, for a place in the final. The Chinese defeated Sri Lanka’s Ranithma Liyanage 15-9, 15-6 in the other quarter-final.
However, India’s hopes of another medal in women’s singles were dashed when eighth seed Unnati Hooda went down 12-15, 13-15 against second seed Anyapat Phichitpreechasak of Thailand.
Unnati clearly struggled with her front-court movement and though the Indian fought for every point in the 32-minute battle, she was repeatedly caught by Anyapat with her quick cross drops and smashes.
In the men’s singles quarter-finals, Gnana Dattu put up a strong fight against third seed Liu Yang Ming Yu of China but his spirited effort was not enough to avoid a 11-15, 13-15 loss.
The mixed doubles combination of Bhavya Chhabra and Vishakha Toppo also fell short in the quarter-finals against Chinese Taipei’s Hung Bing Fu and Chou Yun An 9-15, 7-15.
