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 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 faced little resistance in beating their opponents in straight sets to start their campaign on a positive note.
The mixed team championships are 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 these 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.
India will now take on Sri Lanka in their second group game on Tuesday and UAE on Wednesday.
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 prevailed over 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 Sri Lanka came back from a set down to win. Having lost the opening set rather easily, Sri Lanka benefited 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.
Also read: Junior world champs in sight as India hosts BWF Championship
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