Badminton World Junior Championships: India off to winning start

Indian shuttlers produced a dominating 5-0 victory against the Cook Islands in the mixed team event to kickstart the country’s campaign on a winning note at the BWF World Junior Championships in Spokane, USA.

The mixed doubles pair of Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Vaishnavi Khadkekar provided India a winning start to the match when they outperformed Kaiyin Mataio and Tereapii Akavi with a resounding 21-6, 21-8 victory. Their exceptional coordination and strategic play gave opponents absolutely no chance throughout the match.

Ayush Shetty and Tara Shah further extended India’s lead with dominant showings in their respective singles matches. In the boys' singles match, Ayush displayed his skills to register an impressive 21-6, 21-3 win over Daniel Akavi whereas Tara showcased her class and just took 14 minutes to beat Te Pa O Te Rangi Tupa 21-3, 21-6 in the girls singles match.

Later, the pair of Nicholas and Tushar defeated Emanuela Mataio and Kaiyin Mataio comfortably with a scoreline of 21-9, 21-5 in the boys' doubles match. On the other hand, the girls' doubles duo of Radhika Sharma and Tanvi Sharma demonstrated excellent teamwork to clinch a 21-4, 21-7 against Tereapii Akavi and Vaitea Crocombe-ama.

The Indian team, backed by the support of the Badminton Association of India, Sports Authority of India, REC Limited, and Yonex, have received a walkover against the Dominican Republic and will next face Brazil, later today, and Germany in their final Group D match on Wednesday.

BAI has sent a 16-member squad for the prestigious tournament which will conclude on October 8.