Badminton: Treesa Jolly-Varshini VS wins bronze in the German Junior

The girls’ doubles pair of Treesa Jolly and Varshini Viswanath Sri were the only Indians to reach the semi-finals as the Indian campaign came to an end at the Yonex German Junior 2019 in Berlin, Germany on Saturday. Treesa and Varshini lost to third seeds Guo Lizhi/Li Yijing 16-21, 14-21 in 30 minutes on Saturday. The Indians had played really well to reach the last four, beating the sixth- and second-seeded pairs along the way. Kerala’s Jolly and Tamil Nadu’s Varshini teamed up to cause a huge upset in the quarter-finals as they knocked out the second seeds Christine Busch and Amalie Schulz 21-14, 21-18 and finish their campaign with a bronze medal. Their brave run was, however, over in the semi-finals where they went down 16-21, 14-21 to the third seeds Guo Lizhi and Li Yijing of China. Their compatriots Kavya Gupta and Khushi Gupta bowed out 13-21, 14-21 to fourth seeds Pornpicha Choeikeewong and Pornnicha Suwatnodom in Round 3. In boys’ doubles, Navaneeth Bokka and Vishnu Vardhan Goud Panjala suffered a heart-breaking 21-15, 18-21, 22-24 defeat at the hands of Chen Zhi Ray and Cheng Kai Wen of Chinese Taipei in the quarters. The Telegana shuttlers improved upon their performance at the Dutch Junior International last week where they had reached the pre-quarters.

Meiraba impresses In singles, Maisnam Meiraba Luwang was the only Indian to reach the quarter-finals. The Manipur boy made a series of upsets to make it to the last-eight stage where he bowed out to the top seed 14-21, 21-12, 16-21 in a show of grit and determination.  Earlier in the day, Meiraba stunned sixth seed Yonathan Ramlie 21-14, 21-14 in Round 3 and 10^th seed Bobby Setiabudi 27-25, 18-21, 21-15 in Round 4. 16^th seed Priyanshu Rajawat succumbed to a narrow 21-19, 13-21, 19-21 defeat to Li Yunze of China in the third round. In girls’ singles, Gayatri Gopichand put up the best show among all the girls. The 16-year-old beat So Yul Lee 21-14, 21-13 before losing to third seed Putri Kusuma Wardani 5-21, 17-21 in the pre-quarter-finals. While Samiya Imad Farooqui was beaten 14-21, 17-21 by 12th seed Pornpicha Choeikeewong, Amolika Singh Sisodiya lost 12-21, 21-15, 15-21 to fifth seed Anastasiia Shapovalova. The two-week European swing thus comes to an end for the budding Indian shuttlers. India bettered their performance from last week’s Dutch Junior International, where Priyanshu Rajawat was the only Indian to reach the quarters.