World Junior Ch'ships: India off to flying start; Sri Lanka edge UAE in thriller

Guwahati, Oct 6 (PTI) Hosts India kicked off their mixed team campaign in the Suhandinata Cup with a commanding win over neighbours Nepal, while Sri Lanka stunned the UAE in a nail-biting finish on the opening day of the BWF World Junior Championships here on Monday.

India, seeded second, experimented with their line-up but still sailed through 45-18, 45-17 in their Group H opener, while Sri Lanka took advantage of the changes made by UAE to win 30-45, 45-34, 45-44.

All other top countries, including 14-time champions China, former champions Indonesia and South Korea had little problem beating their respective opponents in straight sets to get their campaign rolling.

The mixed team championships is being played under a new best of three relay-scoring format.

Each tie will be contested for the best of three sets up to 45 points, with each set comprising five matches – one each in men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles. Teams are also allowed to change their players for each set.

India took advantage of this substitution rules to give most of their players a chance to get some match experience as they played a different combination in all three doubles and different players in singles in the two sets against Nepal.

The former world junior no. 1 boys doubles pair of Bhargav Ram Arigela and Viswa Tej Gobburu set the ball rolling with a 9-3 win over Kabir KC and Suprim Panta and India never once looked in any kind of trouble.

Unnati Hooda and Asian U-19 championships bronze medallist Tanvi Sharma were clinical in their respective girls singles matches, while Suryansh Rawat and Rounak Chouhan warmed up for bigger challenges without breaking any sweat.

While most Indian players had played in a different version of the relay-scoring format in the Asian U-19 Mixed Team Championships, it was Unnati’s first outing in this scoring format and the China Open quarterfinalist said that more than her approach to the game, she had to change her pre-match routine more.

"I tend to take my time with the warm up in the 21-point game. But here we have to be at our best from the first point and so my warm-up included a lot more court time as we don’t get any time to warm up between the match," she said.

"Otherwise, there was no problem as such in the match.” None of the other nations faced any challenge in their opening ties as China beat Ghana 45-14, 45-10, Korea beat Hungary 45-22, 45-29, Chinese Taipei defeated Brazil 45-24, 45-19 and Indonesia got the better of Philippines 45-27, 45-40.

But it was a tie between Sri Lanka and UAE that kept everyone in the stadium glued to their seats as the former came back from a set down to win.

Having lost the opening set rather easily, Sri Lanka benefitted from UAE’s decision to replace Bharath Latheesh with Riyan Malhan in boy’s singles.

Keneth Aruggoda, who had lost 4-9 in the opening set, won his second match 9-6 and Sri Lanka rode on that momentum to force the decider.

Aruggoda gave the team another strong start in the deciding state with a 9-5 win over Latheesh and it looked like Sri Lanka would sail through easily when Ranthima Liyanage extended that lead to 18-8 against Prakriti Bharath.

But Malhan and Latheesh then pulled their team back in the contest with a 15-9 win over Sanuda Ariyasingha and Thisath Rupathunga to make it 23-27.

But it was last girls doubles that made for an edge of the seat entertainment. When the match started UAE were trailing 30-36 and Barath and Mysha Omar Khan needed to win 15 points against Sandathi Hewagallage and Pawani Illeperumaarachichi to clinch the tie for their team.

The UAE girls managed to score 14 and were serving for the set and tie at 44-44 but could not wrap things up.

India will now take on Sri Lanka in their second group game on Tuesday and will play UAE on Wednesday.

Results (after first two session): Group B: France bt Norway 2-0 (45-16, 45-24), USA bt Vietnam 2-0 (45-42, 45-30) Group D: Turkiye bt Uganda 2-0 (45-22, 45-22); China bt Ghana 2-0 (45-14, 45-10) Group E: Chinese Taipei bt Brazil 2-0 (45-24, 45-19); Denmark bt Netherlands 2-0 (45-40, 45-22) Group F: Indonesia bt Philippines 2-0 (45-27, 45-40); Hong Kong China bt Slovenia 2-0 (45-24, 45-25) Group G: Poland bt Bhutan 2-0 (45-13, 45-11); Korea bt Hungary 2-0 (45-22, 45-29) Group H: India bt Nepal 2-0 (45-18, 45-17); Sri Lanka bt Sri Lanka (30-45, 45-34, 45-44). PTI ATK AT