Badminton: Unnati Hooda created history in Asia Junior Championship, became the first Indian to reach the final

India’s young shuttler Unnati Hooda created history at the Badminton Asia Under-17 and Under-15 Junior Championships. She has become the first Indian player to reach the final of the Under-17 event of this tournament. Unnati beat Japan’s Mion Yokochi 21-8, 21-17 in the U-17 women’s singles semifinals in Thailand on Saturday (December 3).

Top seed Unnati did wonders once again. She dominated the Under-17 women’s singles semi-finals, winning the match in straight sets. The reigning Odisha Open champion is yet to drop a set in the prestigious event. Unnati will now take on Thailand’s Sarunrak Witidsarn in the gold medal match.

Earlier men’s doubles pair of Arjun MR-Chirag Shetty (2013) and Krishna Prasad Garga-Satwiksairaj Rankireddy (2015) had won gold medals for India in the Under-17 category in the tournament.

Arsh and Sanskar also did wonders
The Under-17 men’s doubles pair of Arsh Mohammad and Sanskar Saraswat also registered a resounding win and made it to the title clash. The in-form pair of Arsh and Sanskar registered a 21-15, 21-19 win over Chinese Taipei’s Chi-Rui Chiu and Shao Hua Chiu in the U-17 men’s doubles semi-finals. They will now face another Chinese Taipei rival Lai Po Yu and Yi-Hao Lin in the final.

Anish Thoppani in final
Under-15 singles player Anish Thoppani reached the final. In the semi-finals, Anish made a sensational comeback from a set down to beat second seed Li Yu-Juei of Chinese Taipei 18-21, 21-12, 21-12. Anish will face Chung-hsiang Yih of Chinese Taipei in the final. Chung-Siang Yih defeated Gyan Dattu of India 21-16, 19-21, 21-13 in the other semi-final.

Bronze medal for Gyan Dattu
After this defeat, Gyan Dattu had to settle for a bronze medal. Apart from them, the U-15 men’s pair of Bjorn Jason and Aatish Srinivas PV also got bronze. Bjorn Jason and Aatish Srinivas PV went down 18-21 14-21 to top seeded Indonesian pair of Mohd Mubarak and Rehan Pramono.