Badminton World Junior Championships: Unnati Hooda and Ayush Shetty continue to shine

Unnati Hooda and Ayush Shetty continued their winning form as Indian junior shuttlers won 10 of their 12 ties in the round of 64 on day two of the BWF World Junior Championships in Spokane, USA early on Wednesday.

Backed by the support of BAI, SAI, REC and Yonex, the Indian shuttlers were outstanding on the second day of the prestigious event.

In the boys' singles section, Ayush Shetty defeated second seed Eogene Ewe of Malaysia in a close contested match that ended with a score of 21-17, 21-17.

In the girls' singles match, Unnati Hooda cruised to victory against Joanna Podedworny of Poland by 21-14, 21-9 in just 22 minutes.

The mixed doubles pair of Samarveer and Radhika Sharma secured a convincing 21-12, 21-11 win against Estonia's Andrei Schmidt and Emili Pärsim. Meanwhile, Sathwik Reddy Kanapuram and Vaishnavi Khadkekar dominated their match against Portugal's Tiago Bernguer and Marta Sousa enroute their 21-15, 21-6 victory.

In the girls' doubles category, the duo of Vennala Kalagotla and Shriyanshi Valishetty overcame a first-game loss against Indonesian pair Nabila Cahya Permata Ayu and Reva Olivia Damayani and won the next two games to win the tie by 13-21, 21-19, 21-11. Whereas,Tanvi Sharma and Radhika Sharma secured a convincing 21-16, 21-8 victory against Tahiti's Heirautea Curet and Maeva Giallard in just 20 minutes.

Lokesh Reddy Kalagotla and Devika Sihag gave their best in their respective matches but faced defeat. Lokesh suffered a 18-21, 16-21 defeat against Rui Sato of Japan whereas Devika went down fighting against DAI Qin Yi of China in a close match that ended with a scoreline of 18-21, 21-18, 20-22.

Tushar Suveer (boys' singles), Tara Shah (girls' singles), along with the doubles pairs of Tushar Suveer and Nicholas Raj, and Divyam Arora and Mayank Rana, also secured victories and earned their spots in the round of 32. The round of 32 matches will be played later in the day.