Unnati Hooda finishes runner-up in Singapore International Challenge

Unnati Hooda made a runner-up finish at the Singapore International Challenge on Sunday as the fourth-seeded Indian youngster fell short in the final against the Indonesian shuttler Ruzana. 

Unnati lost the final in straight games (17-21, 16-21) in a match which lasted for 42 minutes.

A solid run

Unnati was in remarkable form in the tournament, registering big wins, including a straight-game win against Asian Games medallist Saena Kawakami of Australia in the second round.

She defeated two Chinese Taipei players Siang Syuan Lin and Yi-Ting Hung en route to the semifinals.  

In the semifinal, she came from behind to edge past the in-form Vietnamese player, Thi Trang (B) Vu in an intense three-game thriller ((18-21, 21-19, 22-20), where the decider was tied at 20-20 at one point before Unnati ran away with the win. 

However, she could not surpass the final huddle. Despite that, it is a good start to the year for Unnati, and she will also gain a few important ranking points which will help her to get into major BWF tournaments.

Another young Indian shuttler Devika Sihag also had a decent outing at the tournament as she made a quarter-final finish in the women's singles category.