Junior shuttlers drew mixed response for India on the opening day of the Asia Junior Badminton Championships here on Wednesday.
In the men’s singles affair, Kiran George, 16th seeded, survived narrowly in the first game before hammering his Malaysian opponent Chong King Lingin in the second game to register a 24-22, 21-16 victory.
However, in another men’s singles match, Aman Farogh Sanjay went down against tenth seed Indonesian, Karono Karono 16-21, 21-16, 17-21 after putting up a good fight.
But what had overshadowed other Indian wins was the men’s doubles match in which the two Manipuri boys — Manjit Singh and Dingku Singh — put up a wonderful resistance to overcome their Indonesian rivals Muhammad C. Chaniago and Helmi Abu Hanifa 22-20, 23-21.
Earlier in the women singles, Dipti Kutty, Medha Shashidharan and Kavipriya Selvam found easy opponents in their respective matches as the trio moved into the next round.
While India No.7 Dipti defeated Kazakhstan’s Aisha Zhumabek 21-18, 21-13, Medha thrashed Iya Gordeyeva, another shuttler from Kazakh, 21-9, 21-10.
On the other hand, Myanmar’s Seng Jar Nan failed to put up a fight before Kavipriya as she was hammered 5-21, 8-21 by the junior Indian.
In the women’s doubles match, Nafeesah Sara Siraj and Medha succumbed before China’s Guo Lizhi and Yijing Li 9-21, 18-21.
There was however, complete disappointment from the mixed doubles matches as India lost all the three affairs on Wednesday.
The first Indian pair comprising Srikrishna Sai Kumar and Srishti Jupudi failed to maintain their winning momentum as they lost to Indonesia’s Muhammad Juan Elgiffani and Windi Siti Mulyani 21-17, 13-21, 15-21.
In the second match, India’s Orijit Chaliha and Preerthi Konadam lost to Chinese Taipei’s Lin Yu Chieh and Cheng Yu Pei 15-21, 18-21.
Another Chinese Taipei pair — Wu Guan Xun/Teng Chun Hsun — gave India the third jolt as they registered a 21-17, 21-13 win over Edwin Joy and Nafeesah.
