14-year-old Unnati Hooda becomes youngest Indian to win Super 100 event at Odisha Open 2022

Teenage badminton sensation Unnati Hooda has defied all odds to announce her arrival on the senior badminton circuit as she became the youngest Indian to win a Super 100 tournament by bagging the Odisha Open 2022 title. Putting on a deft performance, the 14-year-old from Rohtak, Haryana showed some great skills with the racquet to claim a straight games victory, 21-18, 21-11 against fellow Indian compatriot, Smit Toshniwal.

Meanwhile, unseeded Kiran George emerged triumphant in men's singles final on Sunday. The 21-year-old George prevailed over Priyanshu Rajawat 21-15 14-21 21-18 to clinch the men's singles title after battling hard for 58 minutes.

Unnati Hooda has shown plenty of spunk at this BWF Super 100 tournament and Sunday's final showdown was yet another example. Coming back from quite a sizeable point gap in the first set, Hooda started playing better and swung the momentum in her favour and denied a more experienced Toshniwal to gain any advantage whatsoever. If the opening set was tight, the second set was a one-way show dictated by Hooda who went on to win the Odisha Open title in just 35 minutes.

En route to the finals of the event, the youngster also saw off former Junior World No. 1 Tasnim Mir and subsequently saw off Syed Modi International silver medallist, Malvika Bansod in the semi-finals to set up a date with Smit Toshniwal. Showing incredible promise for the future, it can be safely said that Unnati Hooda is a name we all need to remember and the win in Odisha is just an example of bigger things to come her way.