India’s budding men’s singles shuttler Ayush Shetty stormed into the semi-final of the BWF World Junior Championships on Saturday, after he beat Japan’s Yudai Okimoto in the quarterfinals in Spokane, USA. This is India’s first medal at the ongoing event, in team or in individual categories.
Ayush, the number one ranked Indian boys’ singles player in the BAI rankings faced a tough challenge from his opponent in the early stages. However, when the score reached 16-15 in the Indian shuttler’s favor, he took his game to the next level, won a flurry of points, and won the first game 21-16.
In the second game, Ayush Shetty quickly established a 4-0 lead and maintained his momentum. Although his opponent Yudai attempted a comeback at 18-12, Ayush held his composure and won the second game 21-17 to win the tie in 45 minutes.
Ayush will face the fourth seed Alwi Farhan of Indonesia in the semifinals early on Sunday. In the girls’ singles section, Tara Shah faced the eight seed Xu Wen Jing of China in her quarterfinal. Tara showed resilience in the first game but lost by a narrow margin. In the second game, Tara could not find her rhythm at all and failed to keep up with her opponent en route losing the tie 17-21, 6-21.
Before this edition of the World Junior Championships, India had won one gold, 4 silver, and five bronze medals at this prestigious event. India’s S Sankar Muthusamy Subramanian won the silver medal in the boys’ singles category in the last edition of the World Junior Championships held in Spain in 2022.
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