BWF World Junior Championship: Unnati Hooda advances to round of 16

Santander [Spain], October 26 (ANI): Unnati Hooda, the young Indian badminton player, advanced to the women's singles round of 16 on Wednesday at the World Junior Badminton Championships 2022 in Santander, Spain.
The tournament's fifth seed and the world No. 5 junior badminton player, Unnati Hooda, 14, defeated Gianna Stiglich of Italy with ease 21-11, 21-7.
Unnati Hooda, who won the women's singles title at the Odisha Open in January and went on to become the youngest Indian to win a BWF Super 100 title, will next play Japan player Hina Akechi in the pre-quarterfinals.
Anupama Upadhyay, the third-ranked shuttler in the world, was eliminated from contention in the junior championships. Zhang Xin Ran of China defeated the top seed, 21-15, 21-10.
Zhang will next compete against South Korean shuttler Na Kyung Park, who defeated Indian Rakshita Sree Ramraj 21-13, 21-13.
While Basilio Porto of Spain was easily defeated by S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian, the highest-ranked male singles player from India at No. 4.
The final score was 21-4, 21-5. The Indian shuttler will next meet Thailand's Nachakorn Pusri.
Samarveer and Radhika Sharma's mixed doubles campaign was cut short as they were defeated by the Japanese team of Seiya Inoue and Kokona Ishikawa 21-18, 21-16. The pair had been dominating since winning the BWF World Junior Mixed Team Championships 2022 earlier this month.
Saina Nehwal, a former world No. 1, is the only Indian to have won the junior world championship title to date, while Lakshya Sen earned India's last medal at the competition with a bronze in 2018.
COVID-19 prevented the BWF World Junior Championships from taking place in 2020 and 2021. October 30 marks the end of the junior championship. (ANI)