Badminton Asia Juniors: Indian challenge comes to an end in the quarter-finals

The Indian challenge came to a disappointing end at the Badminton Asia Junior Championships in Jakarta, Indonesia with all Indians in action bowing out in the quarter-finals on Friday. Much was expected from the Under-19 men’s doubles top seeded team of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Dhruv Kapila. But the duo failed to live up to their billing and suffered a shock 21-23, 11-21 defeat to the Malaysian combine of Wei Jie Chia and Tze Yong Ng in a 35-minute match.

In mixed doubles, Kapila and Mithila UK could not continue their giant-killing run and succumbed to an 18-21, 11-21 defeat at the hands of the Korean third seeds Sung Seung Na and Ah Yeong Seong. Kapila and Mithila had put up a fine display of resilience in their third round match on Thursday when they edged the eighth seeds Yeremia Erich Yoche Yacob and Ribka Sugiarto, 15-21, 21-17, 21-19.

The only singles contestant left in the Asian Juniors draw too met with the same fate. Women’s singles fifth seed Aakarshi Kashyap went down to the fourth seeded Chinese Han Yue, 8-21, 16-21 in 38 minutes.

The 15-year-old had not even dropped a game en route to the last-eight but found it impossible to win even a single game against the feisty Chinese.

Kashyap was the biggest medal hope remaining in the singles section after the men’s singles World No. 1 Lakshya Sen was sent packing in the fourth round. All eyes had been on Lakshya, who was expected to win the tournament.

Sen’s campaign, however, came to a grinding halt at the hands of the much lower-ranked Lin Chun-Yi, 21-13, 23-25, 20-22.

Chittaboina in Lagos semi-finals

Meanwhile, there is some good news for Indians from this week’s other tournament - the $20, 000 Lagos International Challenge being held in Lagos, Nigeria. India’s Rahul Yadav Chittaboina, who is seeded fourth, reached the men’s singles semi-finals after a fluent 21-16, 21-10 win over local player Anu Opeyori.

The 19-year-old continues to impress a week after making it to the semi-finals of the Russian Open Grand Prix where he was stopped by the second seed and eventual runner-up Vladimir Malkov in a gruelling five-game match.