Sankar Muthusamy kept Indian’s medal hopes alive at the BWF World Junior Championships after Unnati Hooda went down in three games against Japan’s Hina Akechi in the pre-quarterfinals on Thursday.
Sankar beat Thailand’s Nachakorn Pusri 21-10, 21-12 to reach the quarterfinals in Santander, Spain.
The 18-year-old from Chennai won five straight points to begin the match. Pusri never really came close to troubling the Indian. From 14-8, Sankar went on another spree, earning 12 game-point chances. He converted the third one to clinch the opening game.
The second game wasn’t any different as Sankar entered the mid-game interval with a six-point lead. Pusri reduced the gap to four at 8-12 but that was as close as he could get to Sankar who won nine of the next 13 points to finish the match.
World No. 4 Sankar will face 16-year-old Chinese shuttler Hu Zhe An, world no. 86, in the last-eight fixture.
Earlier in the day, Japan’s Hina Akechi defeated fifth-seeded Hooda 21-17, 12-21, 21-18 in 62 minutes in the women’s singles round of 16.
The 17-year-old Japanese player raced to an 11-5 lead in the opening game, only to see her advantage vanish as the 15-year-old Hooda reeled off seven straight points. However, Akechi returned the favour as from 14-16 down, she won six consecutive points and eventually converted her second game point.
Rohtak-born Hooda dominated most of the second game and closed it by converting her second game point.
In the deciding third game, Akechi took a slender one-point lead into the mid-game interval. The Indian levelled the scores at 15-all. However, Akechi won the next three points and at 20-18, forced Hooda to move towards the back of the court before playing a perfect drop shot to book her place in the quarterfinals.
